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I Think That In The West, Many Citizens, Especially Younger Citizens, Take Their Freedoms And Institutions For Granted And Focus On Their Frustrations With Their Governments' Inability To Solve Pressing Problems.

-Kofi Annan

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I Think That In

Kofi Annan

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I Think That In The West, Many Citizens, Especially Younger Citizens, Take Their Freedoms And Institutions For Granted And Focus On Their Frustrations With Their Governments' Inability To Solve Pressing Problems.

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Children Are Our Future And If We Use Them In Battle, We Are Destroying The Future. We Must Reclaim Them, Every One Of Them, One At A Time.

Microfinance Recognizes That Poor People Are Remarkable Reservoirs Of Energy And Knowledge, Posing An Untapped Opportunity To Create Markets, Bring People In From The Margins And Give Them The Tools With Which To Help Themselves.

As One Of My Predecessors Said, Our Objective Is Not To Take People To Heaven, But To Prevent Humanity From Going To Hell.

Elections With Integrity Are A Challenge Everywhere, Including In The West.

Professional Accountants Should Use That Influence To Encourage The Companies They Serve To Think Long Term And Integrate Sustainable Development Goals Into Their Accounting, Such As By Including A Natural Capital Account, Which I Have Heard Is Gaining Ground.

Any Society That Does Not Succeed In Tapping Into The Energy And Creativity Of Its Youth Will Be Left Behind.

The United Nations Is Proud To Have The Adopt-a-minefield Campaign As A Partner.

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.

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.

Unless The Security Council Is Restored To Its Pre-eminent Position As The Sole Source Of Legitimacy On The Use Of Force, We Are On A Dangerous Path To Anarchy.

Knowledge Is Power. Information Is Liberating. Education Is The Premise Of Progress, In Every Society, In Every Family.

Information Is Power

Above All Else, We Need A Reaffirmation Of Political Commitment At The Highest Levels To Reducing The Dangers That Arise Both From Existing Nuclear Weapons And From Further Proliferation.

Nuclear Disarmament

Literacy Unlocks The Door To Learning Throughout Life, Is Essential To Development And Health, And Opens The Way For Democratic Participation And Active Citizenship.

I Often Quote An African Proverb That Says: "the World Is Not Ours, The Earth Is Not Ours, It's A Treasure We Hold In Trust For Future Generations." And I Often Hope We Will Be Worthy Of That Trust.

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.

The Question Is The Morning After. What Sort Of Iraq Do We Wake Up To After The Bombing? What Happens In The Region? What Impact Could It Have? These Are Questions Leaders I Have Spoken To Have Posed.

I Laugh A Lot Inside And Outside, And At Myself Sometimes.

Inside And Outside

...let Us Continue To Work Together To Develop And Nurture In Future Generations A Culture Of Human Rights, To Promote Freedom, Security And Peace In All Nations.

Working Together

On This International Day Of Peace, Let Us All Honor Those Who Have Suffered From Violence. Let Us Hold In Our Hearts The Ideal Of Peace.

In A World Of Plenty, Continued Suffering Is A Terrible Stain On Our Conscience. It Is Inexcusable That We Not Strive, With Every Resource At Our Disposal, To Eliminate Suffering.

I Have Always Believed That On Important Issues, The Leaders Must Lead. Where The Leaders Fail To Lead, And People Are Really Concerned About It, The People Will Take The Lead And Make The Leaders Follow.

The Young And Dynamic And Idealistic People In The Square Do Not Have The Chance To Organise Themselves Politically, To Be Able To Follow Through Their Dreams In Six Months Time, To Play An Effective Role In The Future.

By Signing The Oslo Accords In 1993 He Took A Giant Step Towards The Realization Of This Vision. It Is Tragic That He Did Not Live To See It Fulfilled.

There Is No Trust More Sacred Than The One The World Holds With Children.

Landmines Are Among The Most Barbaric Weapons Of War, Because They Continue To Kill And Maim Innocent People Long After The War Itself Has Ended. Also, Fear Of Them Keeps People Off The Land, And Thus Prevents Them From Growing Food.

The Right To Development Is The Measure Of The Respect Of All Other Human Rights.that Should Be Our Aim: A Situation In Which All Individuals Are Enabled To Maximize Their Potential, And To Contribute To The Evolution Of Society As A Whole.

You Have To Develop A Certain Healthy Distance To Allow You To Keep A Clear Head, To Be Able To Analyse The Situation, Lead Your Team, And Move Forward With Them, Because There Are Times If I'm Not Careful... If You Get Too Involved, It Will Consume You; It Will Consume You, And You Will Not Be Good To Your Team; The Issues You Are Dealing With.

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 Stage

We Need To Create A World That Is Equitable, That Is Stable And A World Where We Bear In Mind The Needs Of Others, And Not Only What We Need Immediately. We Are All In The Same Boat.

Women Themselves Have The Right To Live In Dignity, In Freedom From Want And Freedom From Fear. On This International Women's Day, Let Us Rededicate Ourselves To Making That A Reality.

It Is Tragic That So Few Young People In Western Democracies Vote. They Have Forgotten That Their Ancestors Fought For The Right To Choose And Change Their Leaders. They Don't Realise That Their Votes Are More Important Than Their Tweets Or Facebook Posts.

No One Is Born A Good Citizen; No Nation Is Born A Democracy. Rather, Both Are Processes That Continue To Evolve Over A Lifetime. Young People Must Be Included From Birth. A Society That Cuts Off From Its Youth Severs Its Lifeline.

Education Is The Great Equalizer Of Our Time. It Gives Hope To The Hopeless And Creates Chances For Those Without.

Asked Whether Donor Nations May Be Becoming Fatigued ... The Fatigue May Be There, But I Don't Think We Can Justify It In The Face Of Such Misery. We May Need To Wake Up Our Conscience And Our Conscience Must Force Us To Act.

One Of My Biggest Regrets Was The Fact That As An Institution And An International Community We Could Not Stop The War In Iraq. That Really Was Very Difficult And Very Painful. Every Fibre In My Body Felt It Was Wrong. I Spoke To Leaders, We Spoke To People, We Tried... We Couldn't Stop It... And We See The Results.

Literacy Is A Bridge From Misery To Hope... Especially For Girls And Women, It Is An Agent Of Family Health And Nutrition.

A Nation Has The Right To Defend Itself, But When It Comes To The Broader Issue Of Peace And Security, The Legitimacy Rests Only With The Security Council.

Young People - With Their Dynamism, Their Energy And Their Inherent Understanding Of Our Interconnected World - Have Much To Teach Us. Increased Educational Attainment, Advances In Technology And The Spread Of Information Have Made This Generation The Best Educated, Most Connected And Most Informed In History

I Believe That Our World Needs An Instrument Of Global Action As Never Before In History. I Believe That The United Nations Is The Instrument For Securing Peace And For Giving People Everywhere, In Poorer Countries As In Richer, A Real Stake In That Peace By Promoting Development And Encouraging Cooperation. But The United Nations Is Only An Instrument, An Actor In Need Of Props And Cues From Its Directors, And So I Will Paraphrase Winston Churchill: Give Us The Tools-the Trust, The Authority And The Means-and We Will Do The Job.

In All These Cases, Part Of The Reasons For Failure Perhaps Was Not Analyzing And Assessing The True Nature Of The Crisis, The Resources That Would Be Required, And Exaggerated Expectation Of What The U.n. Troops Can Do.

The Report Produced By My Commission, The Global Commission On Elections, Democracy And Security, In 2012 Showed The Corrosive Impact Of Money In Us Politics, For Example, Which Undermines The Legitimacy Of The Democratic System In Citizens' Eyes. Such Perceptions Partly Explain The Rise Of A Phenomenon Like The Success Of Donald Trump.

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.

I Am Often Asked What Can People Do To Become A Good Global Citizen? I Reply That It Begins In Your Own Community.

Fierce National Competition Over Water Resources Has Prompted Fears That Water Issues Contain The Seeds Of Violent Conflict.

Violence Against Women Is Perhaps The Most Shameful Human Rights Violation, And It Is Perhaps The Most Pervasive. It Knows No Boundaries Of Geography, Culture Or Wealth. As Long As It Continues, We Cannot Claim To Be Making Real Progress Towards Equality, Development And Peace

As One Of My Predecessors Said, Our Objective Is Not To Take People To Heaven, But To Prevent Humanity From Going To Hell.

I Have Often Said That We Have Two Uns; The Un That Is A Secretariat, That Implements The Mandates Handed Over To It By The General Assembly And The Security Council, And The Un That Is The Member States Who Sit In The Council, Take The Decisions, Hand Over The Mandates, Or Take Decisions In The General Assembly.

Let Us Choose To Unite The Power Of Markets With The Authority Of Universal Ideals. Let Us Choose To Reconcile The Creative Forces Of Private Entrepreneurship With The Needs Of The Disadvantaged And The Requirements Of Future Generations.

Like Any Large Organisation, Public Or Private, The Un Is A Complex Machine.

I Think Over Time You Learn To Know A Bit More About Yourself - You Develop A Certain Amount Of Self-insight And Self-awareness, And You Know What You Can Absorb, And What You Cannot; What Gets To You And What Doesn't.

In Fact Un Is More Of A Galaxy Of Organisations And Agencies Than One Machine.

Young People Should Be At The Forefront Of Global Change And Innovation. Empowered, They Can Be Key Agents For Development And Peace.

It Is Not In The United Nations That The Millennium Development Goals Will Be Achieved. They Have To Be Achieved In Each Of Its Member States, By The Joint Efforts Of Their Governments And People.

When We Talk About The Un, What Are We Really Talking About? We Are Talking About My Country, Your Country, Other Countries And Their Collective Will To Stand Together And Apply Pressure Or Offer Incentives To Steer Things In The Right Direction. When The Nations Of The World Come Together, With Collective Will, On An Issue And They Speak With A United Voice, They Have A Much Greater Impact. When There Is Division, Then The Impact Is Much, Much Less.

Un Peacekeeping Operations Are Now Increasingly Complex And Multi-dimensional, Going Beyond Monitoring A Ceasefire To Actually Bringing Failed States Back To Life, Often After Decades Of Conflict. The Blue Helmets And Their Civilian Colleagues Work Together To Organize Elections, Enact Police And Judicial Reform, Promote And Protect Human Rights, Conduct Mine-clearance, Advance Gender Equality, Achieve The Voluntary Disarmament Of Former Combatants, And Support The Return Of Refugees And Displaced People To Their Homes.

The Reality Is That No Group Of Countries Has Any Grounds For Complacency About Its Own Human Rights Performance And No Group Of Countries Does Itself Justice By Automatically Slipping Into The "victim" Mode . . . .

From This Vision Of The Role Of The United Nations In The Next Century Flow Three Key Priorities For The Future: Eradicating Poverty, Preventing Conflict And Promoting Democracy.

We Must Restore The Sacredness Of The Family As A Bedrock Of Humane Values Everywhere, In Peace As Well As In War.

Women Themselves Have The Right To Live In Dignity, In Freedom From Want And Freedom From Fear. On This International Women's Day, Let Us Rededicate Ourselves To Making That A Reality.

Children Are Our Future And If We Use Them In Battle, We Are Destroying The Future. We Must Reclaim Them, Every One Of Them, One At A Time.

Revolution By Its Nature Can Not Be Overly Programmed Or Directed. There Are So Many Forces At Work That You Don't Know Where And How It All Ends.

I Think The Generational Change Is Going To Be So Important For Africa That We Really Should Encourage And Push It As Much As We Can, Because Some Of These Younger Men And Women, Who Are Men And Women Of Their Times, And Are Also Connected To The Rest Of The World, Wouldn't Even Know How To Behave In The Way Some Of The Old Leaders Do.

In An Era Of Global Abundance, Our World Has The Resources To Reduce Dramatically The Massive Divides That Persist Between Rich And Poor, If Only Those Resources Can Be Unleashed In The Service Of All Peoples.

Business Cannot Prosper In Societies That Fail.

[professional Accountants ] Should Be Encouraging Companies To Enhance Their Green Credentials By Switching To Renewables, And To Respect Core Labor Standards And Human Rights.

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].

To Look Into Some Aspects Of The Future, We Do Not Need Projections By Supercomputers. Much Of The Next Millennium Can Be Seen In How We Care For Our Children Today. Tomorrow's World May Be Influenced By Science And Technology, But More Than Anything, It Is Already Taking Shape In The Bodies And Minds Of Our Children.

Globalization Is A Fact Of Life. But I Believe We Have Underestimated Its Fragility.

The Security Council Should Be Seen As The Executive Committee Of The Global Security System Set Up After World War Ii. Its Members, And Especially The Permanent 5 (p5), Have A Special Responsibility For International Peace And Security.

Security Systems

Terrorism Constitutes A Direct Attack On The Values The Un Stands For: The Rule Of Law; The Protection Of Civilians; Peaceful Resolution Of Conflicts; And Mutual Respect Between People Of Different Faiths And Cultures.

As I Travel Around The World, People Think The Only Place Where There Is Potential Conflict [over] Water Is The Middle East, But They Are Completely Wrong. We Have The Problem All Over The World.

The Lord Had The Wonderful Advantage Of Being Able To Work Alone. Answering Why He Had Not Implemented Organizational Reforms After Five Months When 'god Created The Universe In Seven Day

Human Beings Are Not Property. On The International Day For The Abolition Of Slavery, Let Us Reaffirm The Inherent Dignity Of All Men, Women And Children. And Let Us Redouble Our Efforts So That The Words Of The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights - 'no One Shall Be Held In Slavery Or Servitude' - Ring True.

The Problem Is Not With The Faith, But With The Faithful

The World Is Not Ours To Keep. We Hold It In Trust For Future Generations.

Future Generation

If You Are Neutral In A Situation Where One Side Is Patently Being Mistreated, The Conclusion Is That You're Siding With This Wrong.

You Saw The Traumas That People Lived Through, And Wondered What It Will Take To Move Us As A Human Community, As Humanity, To Help In These Dangerous Situations.

Dangerous Situations

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.

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.

There Can Be No Doubt That These Attacks Are Deliberate Acts Of Terrorism, Carefully Planned And Coordinated And As Such I Condemn Them Utterly. Terrorism Must Be Fought Resolutely Wherever It Appears.

Remembering Is A Necessary Rebuke To Those Who Say The Holocaust Never Happened Or Has Been Exaggerated.

[refugees] Cannot Be Stopped, But They Can And Must Be Managed Better, More Humanely, Protecting Migrants' Human Rights Whilst Accepting States' Rights To Control Their Borders.

Most Governments Only Want To Deploy A Peacekeeping Force Where There Is A Peace Agreement And There Is Peace To Keep. They Are Very Hesitant About Putting Their Men And Women In Harm's Way. It Is Extremely Difficult To Get The Troops If You Do Not Have The Consent Of The Country Where You Are Deploying.

When Things Are Really Desperate And Hopeless And You Can't Do Anything About This, And There's A Sense That Something Must Be Done, That Is Something Usually Leads To The U.n.

Founded On The Principles Of Private Initiative, Entrepreneurship And Self-employment, Underpinned By The Values Of Democracy, Equality And Solidarity, The Co-operative Movement Can Help Pave The Way To A More Just And Inclusive Economic Order.

Knowledge Is Power. Information Is Liberating.

Knowledge Is Power

The United Nations, Whose Membership Comprises Almost All The States In The World, Is Founded On The Principle Of The Equal Worth Of Every Human Being.

Gender Equality Is More Than A Goal In Itself. It Is A Precondition For Meeting The Challenge Of Reducing Poverty, Promoting Sustainable Development And Building Good Governance.

Literacy Is At The Heart Of Sustainable Development

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.

Can The State, Which Represents The Whole Of Society And Has The Duty Of Protecting Society, Fulfill That Duty By Lowering Itself To The Level Of The Murderer, And Treating Him As He Treated Others? The Forfeiture Of Life Is Too Absolute, Too Irreversible, For One Human Being To Inflict It On Another, Even When Backed By Legal Process.

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.

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.

Have Confidence In The Young People, Give Them A Chance, And They Will Surprise You.

The World Is Not Ours To Keep. We Hold It In Trust For Future Generations.

Future Generation

No Nation Can Make Itself Secure By Seeking Supremacy Over All Others. We All Share Responsibility For Each Other's Security, And Only By Working To Make Each Other Secure Can We Hope To Achieve Lasting Security For Ourselves.

Let Us Be Good Stewards Of The Earth We Inherited. All Of Us Have To Share The Earth's Fragile Ecosystems And Precious Resources, And Each Of Us Has A Role To Play In Preserving Them. If We Are To Go On Living Together On This Earth, We Must All Be Responsible For It.

You Have To Wake Up Every Day Ready To Start Again.

It's Not That Easy To Quit. When You Look Back In The American System It Is Very Rare That People Quit On Issues Of Principle.

Usually, When You Look Around The World, People Are Killing Each Other, Fighting Over Scarce Resources.

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.

I Think Over Time You Learn To Know A Bit More About Yourself - You Develop A Certain Amount Of Self-insight And Self-awareness, And You Know What You Can Absorb, And What You Cannot; What Gets To You And What Doesn't.

The Future Of Peace And Prosperity That We Seek For All The World's Peoples Needs A Foundation Of Tolerance, Security, Equality And Justice.

You Need Younger Men In Africa, Men And Women In African Politics.

[refugees] Cannot Be Stopped, But They Can And Must Be Managed Better, More Humanely, Protecting Migrants' Human Rights Whilst Accepting States' Rights To Control Their Borders.

Let Us Choose To Unite The Power Of Markets With The Authority Of Universal Ideals. Let Us Choose To Reconcile The Creative Forces Of Private Entrepreneurship With The Needs Of The Disadvantaged And The Requirements Of Future Generations.

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.

In An Era Of Global Abundance, Our World Has The Resources To Reduce Dramatically The Massive Divides That Persist Between Rich And Poor, If Only Those Resources Can Be Unleashed In The Service Of All Peoples.

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.

Human Beings Are Not Property. On The International Day For The Abolition Of Slavery, Let Us Reaffirm The Inherent Dignity Of All Men, Women And Children. And Let Us Redouble Our Efforts So That The Words Of The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights - 'no One Shall Be Held In Slavery Or Servitude' - Ring True.

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.

Asked Whether Donor Nations May Be Becoming Fatigued ... The Fatigue May Be There, But I Don't Think We Can Justify It In The Face Of Such Misery. We May Need To Wake Up Our Conscience And Our Conscience Must Force Us To Act.

The Main Point In Our Report Was To Recommend Decriminalization...because Of The Way Laws Are Applied, Which Have Not Worked. We Have Applied Them For Decades And It's Got The Prisons Filled With Lots Of Young People Who Sometimes Come Out Destroyed For Having Half An Ounce... We Should Approach It Through Education And Health Issues Rather Than A Brutal Reaction... There Is Need For Change In Policy, But It Has To Start With Debate And Discussion... I Think The Whole Approach Has To Be Reviewed.

You Are Never Too Young To Lead.

The Past Year's Natural Disasters Have Highlighted The Invaluable Contributions Of Volunteers In Our Communities. They Have Volunteered Their Time, Energy And Skills To Save Lives And To Rebuild Communities. In This They Joined Countless People Around The World Who Volunteer Every Day In Response To 'silent Crises'. These Often Unsung Heroes Understand All Too Well That Poverty, Disease And Famine Are Just As Deadly And Destructive As Earthquakes, Hurricanes And Tsunamis.

Ignorance And Prejudice Are The Handmaidens Of Propaganda. Our Mission, Therefore, Is To Confront Ignorance With Knowledge, Bigotry With Tolerance, And Isolation With The Outstretched Hand Of Generosity. Racism Can, Will, And Must Be Defeated.

My Intimate Knowledge Of The [un] System Allowed Me To Get Things Done Despite The Many Obstacles.

Gender Equality Is More Than A Goal In Itself. It Is A Precondition For Meeting The Challenge Of Reducing Poverty, Promoting Sustainable Development And Building Good Governance.

Not Only Do These Abominable Weapons Lie Buried In Silence And In Their Millions Waiting To Kill Or Maim Innocent Women And Children; But The Presence Or Even The Fear Of The Presence Of A Single Landmine Can Prevent The Cultivation Of An Entire Field, Rob A Whole Village Of Its Livelihood, Place Yet Another Obstacle On A Country's Road To Reconstruction And Development

Literacy Is A Bridge From Misery To Hope. It Is A Tool For Daily Life In Modern Society. It Is A Bulwark Against Poverty, And A Building Block Of Development... For Everyone, Everywhere, Literacy Is, Along With Education In General, A Basic Human Right.... Literacy Is, Finally, The Road To Human Progress And The Means Through Which Every Man, Woman And Child Can Realize His Or Her Full Potential.

We Have To Choose Between A Global Market Driven Only By Calculations Of Short-term Profit, And One Which Has A Human Face.

Economic Globalization

Most People Forget That Even In Iraq, By The Time The Air And No-fly Zone Was Established, The Air Defence System Had Been Removed Through The First Gulf War. All Of Them Had Been Neutralised.

Let Us, Above All, Be Clear That, Without A Convincing Program Of Debt Relief To Start The New Millennium, Our Objective Of Halving World Poverty By 2015 Will Be Only A Pipe Dream.

Literacy Is At The Heart Of Sustainable Development

In A World Of Plenty, Continued Suffering Is A Terrible Stain On Our Conscience. It Is Inexcusable That We Not Strive, With Every Resource At Our Disposal, To Eliminate Suffering.

If The United Nations Does Not Attempt To Chart A Course For The World's People In The First Decades Of The New Millennium, Who Will?

We Need To Think Of The Future And The Planet We Are Going To Leave To Our Children And Their Children.

In The 21st Century I Believe The Mission Of The United Nations Will Be Defined By A New, More Profound, Awareness Of The Sanctity And Dignity Of Every Human Life, Regardless Of Race Or Religion.

We Have The Means And The Capacity To Deal With Our Problems, If Only We Can Find The Political Will.

The U.n. Power Comes From Concerted Action Of The Governments.

It's Always A Difficult Time To Be Secretary General.

Difficult Times

The Problem Is Not With The Faith, But With The Faithful

The Lord Had The Wonderful Advantage Of Being Able To Work Alone.

In The 21st Century I Believe The Mission Of The United Nations Will Be Defined By A New, More Profound, Awareness Of The Sanctity And Dignity Of Every Human Life, Regardless Of Race Or Religion.

I Was An Ordinary Boy At School, A Young Man. In Fact, What Did The Headmaster Once Say? "you're Constantly Challenging Those In Authority; Questioning And Challenging Those In Authority." Which Was Not Really The Way I Saw It. I Felt There Were Questions That Had To Be Answered, And Things That Weren't Quite Right.

If Our Hopes Of Building A Better And Safer World Are To Become More Than Wishful Thinking, We Will Need The Engagement Of Volunteers More Than Ever.

The Global Work Of The United Nations Is Not Without Reason Compared To That Of A Family - Striving For A Common Goal In Concert With All Members For A Better Future.

Sometimes I Walk Into A Situation And I Know Somebody Is Going To Provoke Me - Not Maybe, I Know He Will Provoke Me - I Know He Will Provoke Me! And There Are Times When I Simply Refuse To Be Provoked. And The Other Times You Have To Use That Superior Knowledge To Carry On At Work Without Distraction, And Don't Allow Yourself To Be Distracted. I Laugh A Lot Inside And Outside, And At Myself Sometimes.

National Markets Are Held Together By Shared Values And Confidence In Certain Minimum Standards. But In The New Global Market, People Do Not Yet Have That Confidence.

Beneath The Surface Of States And Nations, Ideas And Language, Lies The Fate Of Individual Human Beings In Need. Answering Their Needs Will Be The Mission Of The United Nations In The Century To Come.

Human Rights Education Is Much More Than A Lesson In Schools Or A Theme For A Day; It Is A Process To Equip People With The Tools They Need To Live Lives Of Security And Dignity. On This International Human Rights Day, Let Us Continue To Work Together To Develop And Nurture In Future Generations A Culture Of Human Rights, To Promote Freedom, Security And Peace In All Nations.

It May Seem Sometimes As If A Culture Of Peace Does Not Stand A Chance Against The Culture Of War, The Culture Of Violence And The Cultures Of Impunity And Intolerance. Peace May Indeed Be A Complex Challenge, Dependent On Action In Many Fields And Even A Bit Of Luck From Time To Time. It May Be A Painfully Slow Process, And Fragile And Imperfect When It Is Achieved. But Peace Is In Our Hands. We Can Do It.

We Were All Children Once. And We All Share The Desire For The Well-being Of Our Children, Which Has Always Been And Will Continue To Be The Most Universally Cherished Aspiration Of Humankind.

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.

Education Is The Great Equalizer Of Our Time. It Gives Hope To The Hopeless And Creates Chances For Those Without.

We Must Bring A Message Of Solidarity, Of Mutual Respect And, Above All, Of Hope. Business Cannot Afford To Be Seen As The Problem.

The United Nations Has Long Recognised That The Imagination, Ideals And Energies Of Young Men And Women Are Vital For The Continuing Development Of The Societies In Which They Live. And Since Its Inception In 1948, Aiesec Has Contributed To This Development By Serving As An Agent Of Positive Change Trough Education And Cultural Exchange.

When So Many Lives Are At Risk, When So Much Killing Is Going On, When There's So Much Chaos And Suffering, Isn't The Risk Warranted? ... And If We Don't Take The Risk Of Coming To The Conference, What Do We Do? We Let It Continue?

When So Many Lives Are At Risk, When So Much Killing Is Going On, When There's So Much Chaos And Suffering, Isn't The Risk Warranted? ... And If We Don't Take The Risk Of Coming To The Conference, What Do We Do? We Let It Continue?

I Used To Tell The Story About As A Young Man In High School One Of The Professors Came In And Put A Broad White Sheet On The Board With A Dot In The Right Hand Corner And Said, "boys, What Do You See?" And We All Shouted, A Black Dot. He Stood Back And Said, "not A Single One Of You Saw The Broad White Sheet, You All Saw The Black Dot." He Went On To Tell Us To Focus On The Broader Picture, Don't Focus On The Negative.

Insecurity Is Love Dressed In A Child's Clothing.

Microfinance Recognizes That Poor People Are Remarkable Reservoirs Of Energy And Knowledge, Posing An Untapped Opportunity To Create Markets, Bring People In From The Margins And Give Them The Tools With Which To Help Themselves.

Extreme Poverty Anywhere Is A Threat To Human Security Everywhere.

The War On Drugs Has Failed In West Africa And Around The World

Slavery Was, In A Very Real Sense, The First International Human Rights Issue To Come To The Fore. It Led To The Adoption Of The First Human Rights Laws And To The Creation Of The First Human Rights Non-governmenta L Organization. And Yet Despite The Efforts Of The International Community To Combat This Abhorrent Practice, It Is Still Widely Prevalent In All Its Insidious Forms, Old And New.

People Of Different Religions And Cultures Live Side By Side In Almost Every Part Of The World, And Most Of Us Have Overlapping Identities Which Unite Us With Very Different Groups. We Can Love What We Are, Without Hating What – And Who – We Are Not. We Can Thrive In Our Own Tradition, Even As We Learn From Others, And Come To Respect Their Teachings.

To Live Is To Choose.

I Did Not Always Achieve What I Set Out To Do. Nevertheless, My Personal Example Certainly Suggests That Hands-on Experience Can Be Helpful To Future Leaders.

Neutrality Is A Tough Call For The Weaker Ones.

Iraq Has A New Opportunity To Comply With All These Relevant Resolutions Of The Security Council.

You Have To Develop A Certain Healthy Distance To Allow You To Keep A Clear Head, To Be Able To Analyse The Situation, Lead Your Team, And Move Forward With Them, Because There Are Times If I'm Not Careful... If You Get Too Involved, It Will Consume You; It Will Consume You, And You Will Not Be Good To Your Team; The Issues You Are Dealing With.

Perhaps The Single Most Successful International Agreement To Date Has Been The Montreal Protocol.

Education Is A Human Right With Immense Power To Transform. On Its Foundation Rest The Cornerstones Of Freedom, Democracy And Sustainable Human Development.

Democracies Have

...there Is No Tool For Development More Effective Than The Empowerment Of Women.

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.

A Nation Has The Right To Defend Itself, But When It Comes To The Broader Issue Of Peace And Security, The Legitimacy Rests Only With The Security Council.

The Millennium Development Goals Can Be Met By 2015, But Only If All Involved Break With Business As Usual And Dramatically Accelerate And Scale Up Action Now.

[professional Accountants ] Should Be Encouraging Companies To Enhance Their Green Credentials By Switching To Renewables, And To Respect Core Labor Standards And Human Rights.

On This International Literacy Day, Let Us Recall That Literacy For All Is An Integral Part Of Education For All, And That Both Are Critical For Achieving Truly Sustainable Development For All.

It Is Well Known That You Can Only Manage What You Measure, And As This Is The Job Of Professional Accountants, It Means They Have Huge Influence On Companies' Governance.

Access To A Secure, Safe And Sufficient Source Of Fresh Water Is A Fundamental Requirement For The Survival, Well-being And Socio-economic Development Of All Humanity. Yet, We Continue To Act As If Fresh Water Were A Perpetually Abundant Resource. It Is Not.

Poverty Devastates Families, Communities And Nations. It Causes Instability And Political Unrest And Fuels Conflict.

More Than Ever Before In Human History, We Share A Common Destiny. We Can Master It Only If We Face It Together. And That, My Friends, Is Why We Have The United Nations.

To Look Into Some Aspects Of The Future, We Do Not Need Projections By Supercomputers. Much Of The Next Millennium Can Be Seen In How We Care For Our Children Today. Tomorrow's World May Be Influenced By Science And Technology, But More Than Anything, It Is Already Taking Shape In The Bodies And Minds Of Our Children.

I Urge You To Celebrate The Extraordinary Courage And Contributions Of Refugees Past And Present.

Good, Healthy Democratic Societies Are Built On Three Pillars: There's Peace And Stability, Economic Development, And Respect For Rule Of Law And Human Rights. And Where All Three Are Present, You Stand A Very Good Chance Of Making A Go Of It.

Having Worked My Way From The Bottom Of The Ladder To The Top [of The Un] Certainly Helped Me Navigate That Complexity, Both Political And Bureaucratic.

Young People Must Be Included From Birth. A Society That Cuts Itself Off From Its Youth Severs Its Lifeline; It Is Condemned To Bleed To Death.

In Their Greatest Hour Of Need, The World Failed The People Of Rwanda.

Tony Blair Is A Very Able Politician; He's Perhaps One Of The Best Of His Generation. He Made A Major Contribution In Many Areas, But In Iraq I Believe He Got It Wrong. He Got It Wrong.

There Are Lots Of Questions Which Have To Be Answered.

There Is A Certain Tendency On The Part Of Some Americans To Treat The Un As A Multilateralism à La Carte Where You Pick And Choose Where It Suits You And When It Doesn't Suit You, You Pull Back.

Once You Are Really Challenged, You Find Something In Yourself. Man Doesn't Know What He Is Capable Of Until He Is Asked.

I Think That In The West, Many Citizens, Especially Younger Citizens, Take Their Freedoms And Institutions For Granted And Focus On Their Frustrations With Their Governments' Inability To Solve Pressing Problems.

There Is No Development Strategy More Beneficial To Society As A Whole - Women And Men Alike - Than The One Which Involves Women As Central Players.

The Fight Against Hiv/aids Requires Leadership From All Parts Of Government - And It Needs To Go Right To The Top. Aids Is Far More Than A Health Crisis. It Is A Threat To Development Itself.

Not Only Do These Abominable Weapons Lie Buried In Silence And In Their Millions Waiting To Kill Or Maim Innocent Women And Children; But The Presence Or Even The Fear Of The Presence Of A Single Landmine Can Prevent The Cultivation Of An Entire Field, Rob A Whole Village Of Its Livelihood, Place Yet Another Obstacle On A Country's Road To Reconstruction And Development

Knowledge Is Power. Information Is Liberating. Education Is The Premise Of Progress, In Every Society, In Every Family.

Information Is Power

It Is My Aspiration That Health Finally Will Be Seen Not As A Blessing To Be Wished For, But As A Human Right To Be Fought For.

Violence Against Women Is Perhaps The Most Shameful Human Rights Violation, And It Is Perhaps The Most Pervasive. It Knows No Boundaries Of Geography, Culture Or Wealth. As Long As It Continues, We Cannot Claim To Be Making Real Progress Towards Equality, Development And Peace

On This International Literacy Day, Let Us Recall That Literacy For All Is An Integral Part Of Education For All, And That Both Are Critical For Achieving Truly Sustainable Development For All.

Under International Law, The Responsibility For Protecting Civilians In Conflict Falls On The Belligerents. Under Military Occupation, Responsibility For The Welfare Of The Population Falls On The Occupiers.

Justice Has Taken Its Course And The Authority And Legitimacy Of The Legal Process Must Be Respected.

The Fight Against Hiv/aids Requires Leadership From All Parts Of Government - And It Needs To Go Right To The Top. Aids Is Far More Than A Health Crisis. It Is A Threat To Development Itself.

We Must Restore The Sacredness Of The Family As A Bedrock Of Humane Values Everywhere, In Peace As Well As In War.

I Think What Gives Me Hope Is I Have The Sense That The People Of Kenya Have Turned The Page. They Are Keen To Get A New Political Dispensation. They Are Keen To Fight Corruption And Impunity, And In That Sense They Are Leaving The Political Elite Behind.

Access To Safe Water Is A Fundamental Human Need And Therefore A Basic Human Right.

As I Travel Around The World, People Think The Only Place Where There Is Potential Conflict [over] Water Is The Middle East, But They Are Completely Wrong. We Have The Problem All Over The World.

Obama Saying Gaddafi Must Go. Putting It Upfront Like That... It's Not Very Helpful.

It Is Extreme Arrogance For One To Think He...and It's Usually He, Is The Only One Who Can Govern His Country And Nobody Else Can Do It.

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