Kofi Annan
International law now grants rights to all human beings, not only to citizens.Collection: Rights
It is extreme arrogance for one to think he is the only one who can govern his country and nobody else can do it. We're all human. After 10, 15 years you get tired, you run out of steam and ideas, you have to give a chance to somebody else. And whether you yourself are inclined to stay on, all those around you are pushing you to stay on for what they will gain. One has to have the strength of character to say the time has come to move on...unless you are a king.Collection: Running
Literacy unlocks the door to learning throughout life, is essential to development and health, and opens the way for democratic participation and active citizenship.Collection: Education
The gap between the rich and the poor cannot keep growing without nothing being done about it.Collection: Done
We will not enjoy security without development, we will not enjoy development without security, and we will not enjoy either without respect for human rights.Collection: Rights
A developed country is one that allows all its citizens to enjoy a free and healthy life in a safe environmentCollection: Country
If you have a problem and you can't find a solution, you meet again tomorrow and you keep talking until you find a solution. You can disagree with behavior or a particular position, but you do not resort to calling an opponent worthless.Collection: Talking
In an age of interdependence, global citizenship - based on trust and sense of shared responsibility - is a crucial pillar of progress. At a time when more than one billion people are denied the very minimum requirements of human dignity, business cannot afford to be seen as the problem. Rather, it must work with governments and all other actors in society to mobilize global science, technology and knowledge to tackle the interlocking crises of hunger, disease, environmental degradation and conflict that are holding back the developing world.Collection: Responsibility
One has to learn from history. Quite frankly, it is almost impossible to have a sense of vision without a sense of history. If history is learned, then it doesn't have to repeat itself over generations.Collection: Vision
Change is a process which has to be managed. If it's managed and managed well in the interest of the nation and the people, the likelihood is that it will end well.Collection: People
One must also acknowledge that there are moments in an organisation's development when fresh blood and new vision are required, which may imply that an outsider may be better suited to the leadership role.Collection: Blood
Neutrality is a tough call for the weaker ones.Collection: Neutrality
We need to ensure the poorest in the planet - who will be hardest hit by the financial crisis - are not forgotten.Collection: Hardest Hit
We at the U.N. have to take some of the blame, because we have not lowered expectations creating the impression we are here to save people, even when we have very limited resources.Collection: Creating
Sometimes in peacekeeping operations you show force in order not to use force - people realise that there's a pushback and there's a solid force there that's not going to be pushed around, that sometimes helps.Collection: Order
When the US withdrew their troops from Somalia, I recall making a comment that [in] the way the peacekeepers had been withdrawn from Somalia, the impression had been given that the easiest way to unravel a peacekeeping operation is to kill a few soldiers.Collection: Soldier
Ameen Rihani, one of the earliest Arab Americans, devoted his life to bringing the East and the West together. We are not of the East or the West, he wrote. No boundaries exist in our breast: We are free.Collection: Together
I hope we do not see another Iraq-type operation for a long time - without UN approval and much broader support from the international community.Collection: Iraq
In the past we could afford a long gestation period before undertaking major environmental policy initiatives. Today the time for a well-planned transition to a sustainable system is running out. We may be moving in the right direction, but we are moving too slowly. We are failing in our responsibility to future generations and even the present one.Collection: Running
Sometimes when you take a tough action against one side in the conflict, they see you as part of the conflict and they attack you.Collection: Sides
There are a great number of peoples who need more than just words of sympathy from the international community. They need a real and sustained commitment to help end their cycles of violence, and launch them on a safe passage to prosperity.Collection: Real
Remembering is a necessary rebuke to those who say the Holocaust never happened or has been exaggerated.Collection: Holocaust
If we do not get a universal acceptance of the constitution the likelihood of the violence continuing is there. If it had been an inclusive exercise -- as when everybody had embraced the constitution and everyone saw his interest protected by the constitution -- I think it would have been a rallying exercise. We are not there at this stageCollection: Acceptance
You can do a lot with diplomacy, but with diplomacy backed up by force you can get a lot more done.Collection: Done
I spent my youth and my most formative years in Africa. I left Africa when I was about 20, 21, and when Mo says a great African, I was really moulded by my African experience, although I had the good fortune that by the time I was 24 I had studied and worked on three continents - Africa, the US, and Europe.Collection: Years
There was a time, with the Berlin Wall down, that [it looked as if] the UN finally could do what it was set up to do, the rivalry between the two camps would dissipate, and we could all co-operate. And then, of course, Iraq came and blew it all apart. These upheavals will always take place in the world, and the design and construct of the UN ideally should be such that it can deal with these upheavals, and possibly influence them, and survive and thrive, but it doesn't work out that way, because as an organisation we are so dependent on the same member states.Collection: Wall
The U.N. power comes from concerted action of the governments.Collection: Government
You need to be careful not to over-reach and also assess the capacity you have to work with.Collection: Needs
You need younger men in Africa, men and women in African politics.Collection: Men
I think the US and UK thought if they gave a bit more time to Israel, they would crush Hezbollah. But it became very obvious that was an unwinnable war.Collection: Crush
Insecurity is love dressed in a child's clothing.Collection: Children
The other thing that really I regretted not being able to do was to push effectively for the reform of the Security Council. Because the world was changing, and is changing very fast, and I felt the UN was holding on to old arrangements. Most governments felt that it has such a narrow power base, based on the results of the second world war.Collection: War
These divisions in the international community - the Syrians bear quite a lot of the blame, but we have enabled it by the divisions between us.Collection: Community
I think that peacekeeping can do quite a lot, if they are given the right mandate with the commensurate resources to get the job done.Collection: Jobs
I don't see a situation where one side will win militarily, take over Syria, and there will be peace and quiet, a clean victory.Collection: Winning
Democracy is, in essence, a form of non-violent conflict management. If war is the worst enemy of development, healthy and balanced development is the best form of conflict prevention.Collection: War
The UN was very media-shy, and its relationship with the press was very controlled; although periodically I spoke to the press, the rule was, only the secretary-general speaks to the press; only the secretary-general makes... So you would see many situations where under-secretaries-general would come in and speak. I opened that, and I encouraged all of them to speak in their areas, whether it was peacekeeping or humanitarian efforts.Collection: Media
Applaud us when we prevail, correct us when we fail; but, above all, do not let this indispensable, irreplaceable institution wither, languish or perish as a result of Member States' indifference, inattention or financial starvation.Collection: Inattention
We knew the Syrian situation was complex and there were lots of divisions, particularly on the side of the opposition... This is a tough job... It can perhaps be done if you stand united and work with me in putting sustained pressure on the protagonists or the parties to come together and seek a political settlement.Collection: Jobs
In some ways, the challenges are even more daunting than they were at the peak of the cold war. Not only do we continue to face grave nuclear threats, but those threats are being compounded by new weapons developments, new violence within States and new challenges to the rule of law.Collection: Peace
The Arab spring reminds me a bit of the decolonisation process where one country gets independence and everybody else wants it. How about us, when do we get it, when do we make our move? And you have a situation where someone has been in power for decades, where the integrity of elections, democracy and security have really not been debated or discussed and most people suspect that elections are rigged and that the democratic rotation that elections are supposed to ensure doesn't really happen. And when this goes on for a while you are sitting on a powder keg.Collection: Country
My own advice to people who would be in office for two or three terms is that they must accept democratic rotation. Ideally not put themselves up for re-election and allow the system to work.Collection: Two
We tend to look at countries in terms of failed states and functioning states, which is rather simplistic.Collection: Country
How can you have a world of today where India is not represented in the Security Council; Japan, the second contributor, is not there; the whole continent of Africa, soon to be 54 countries, don't have a single permanent seat; and Latin America is absent? It's not realistic.Collection: Country
I've been around enough to realise that there are two things that once people have them, they don't want to give up, and it's extremely difficult to convince them to give up: one is privileges, and the other is subsidies.Collection: Giving Up
We have seen recently, almost every major head of state goes to India and says, we believe India should be in the Council. They go back home and do nothing about it. But this cannot be sustained for long. If they want to keep the UN as a global forum where they discuss incidents and take some meaningful decisions, they should [reform].Collection: Meaningful
When you have difficult issues on the table for discussion, then sometimes for Africa you may have Burundi or Gambia representing them on the Security Council; and then for Latin America you may have a country like Costa Rica, which is a wonderful country but they don't have the same weight as others from the other regions. And sometimes they get bullied. Sometimes their capitals come under lots of pressure to take a position.Collection: Country
You may have noticed over the years that the UN became a bit more media-friendly, a bit more open to the media than in the past.Collection: Past