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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.

-Kofi Annan

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I Think The Generational

Kofi Annan

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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.

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

Does Anyone Seriously Contend That Any Nation Can Fend For Itself?

The Death Toll From Small Arms Dwarfs That Of All Other Weapons Systems — And In Most Years Greatly Exceeds The Toll Of The Atomic Bombs That Devastated Hiroshima And Nagasaki. In Terms Of The Carnage They Cause, Small Arms, Indeed, Could Well Be Described As 'weapons Of Mass Destruction'.

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The United Nations Believes That Acceptance Of These Principles Will Help The Palestinian People Achieve Their Legitimate Goal Of An End To Occupation And The Creation Of An Independent And Viable State, Living In Peace And Security With Its Neighbors.

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.

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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.

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

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

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

However Much One Tries To Suppress The Will Of The People They Eventually Will Have The Last Word.

The [un Security Council] P5 Ought To Be Dissuaded From Using Their Veto Power, Which Can Paralyze The United Nations. The Country Blocking Action Ought To Have To Explain Its Decision And Propose An Alternative Solution. It Has Been Suggested That A Veto Only Becomes Effective If The Vetoing State Has The Support Of Two Or Three Other Permanent Members.

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.

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.

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.

I Was Devastated By The Atrocious Bombings That Struck London Today. These Vicious Acts Have Cut Us All To The Core, For They Are An Attack On Humanity Itself. [7th July 2005 - On London Bombings

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

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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.

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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.

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We Have To Be Very Clear With The Population And The Countries We Enter What We Can Do And What We Cannot Do.

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.

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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.

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We Had A Rule In The School That When You're Punished, You Carry Out The Punishment And Then Complain, Which I Felt Was Absolutely Unfair: If I'd Done It, What Was The Point Of Complaining?

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.

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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.

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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.

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

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?

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We Shall Not Defeat Any Of The Infectious Diseases That Plague The Developing World Until We Have Also Won The Battle For Safe Drinking Water, Sanitation, And Basic Health Care.

The Happiness Of Any Society Begins With The Well Being Of The Families That Live In It.

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

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I Think We Can Make A Difference In The Lives Of The Poor, And The Millions.

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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.

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.

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I Think The World Has Moved On.

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Often, We Take Stability - Peace In Terms Of Security And Economic Activity - To Mean A Country Is Doing Well. We Forget The Third And Important Pillar Of Rule Of Law And Respect For Human Rights, Because No Country Can Long Remain Prosperous Without That Third Pillar.

Some Have Suggested That Ideally There Must Be Some International Body That Would Treat Areas Like The Arctic As A Global Commerce, A Bit Like The Way We Treat The Sea. It Doesn't Belong To Any Particular Country, But To All Of Us, But I'm Not Sure Some Of The Powerful Are Ready For That Sort Of Solution.

Hiv/aids Has Become Much More Than A Health Issue. Hiv/aids Is A Development Issue, It's A Security Issue.

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.

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

Information Is Power

You Need To Be Careful Not To Over-reach And Also Assess The Capacity You Have To Work With.

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

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Both Parties Accept This Vision. But We Can Reach It Only If We Move Rapidly And In Parallel On All Fronts. The So-called 'sequential' Approach Has Failed.

It Is Impossible To Realize Our Goals While Discriminating Against Half The Human Race. As Study After Study Has Taught Us, There Is No Tool For Development More Effective Than The Empowerment Of Women.

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.

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Democracies Have

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Business Cannot Prosper In Societies That Fail.

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.

This Is An Historic Step Forward In The World's Efforts To Combat A Truly Global Threat.

A World Government Can Intervene Militarily In The Internal Affairs Of Any Nation When It Disapproves Of Their Activities.

World Government

To Educate Girls Is To Reduce Poverty.

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After The End Of The Cold War, Everybody Thought, Fantastic, Finally The Un May Be Able To Do What It Was Originally Set Up To Do Without Big Power Divisions. It Would Be Easy To Get Them To Come Together To Resolve Things. You Will Recall, On The First Gulf War, You Almost Got A Unanimous Resolution And A Very Solid Coalition.

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.

Whether Our Task Is Fighting Poverty, Stemming The Spread Of Disease Or Saving Innocent Lives From Mass Murder, We Have Seen That We Cannot Succeed Without The Leadership Of The Strong And The Engagement Of All.

...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

This Is An Historic Step Forward In The World's Efforts To Combat A Truly Global Threat.

If Globalization Is To Succeed, It Must Succeed For Poor And Rich Alike. It Must Deliver Rights No Less Than Riches. It Must Provide Social Justice And Equity No Less Than Economic Prosperity And Enhanced Communication.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Sadly, A Prize For Peace Is A Rarity In This World. Most Nations Have Monuments Or Memorials To War, Bronze Salutations To Heroic Battles, Archways Of Triumph. But Peace Has No Parade, No Pantheon Of Victory.

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

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.

I Think We Can Make A Difference In The Lives Of The Poor, And The Millions.

Making A Difference

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.

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.

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.

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. But Often, We Take Stability - Peace In Terms Of Security And Economic Activity - To Mean A Country Is Doing Well. We Forget The Third And Important Pillar Of Rule Of Law And Respect For Human Rights, Because No Country Can Long Remain Prosperous Without That Third Pillar.

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.

If The United Nations Is Not As United As It Should Be, That Is Because It Is A Reflection Of The World We Live In.

A World Government Can Intervene Militarily In The Internal Affairs Of Any Nation When It Disapproves Of Their Activities.

World Government

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.

Nuclear Terrorism Is Still Often Treated As Science Fiction. I Wish It Were. But Unfortunately We Live In A World Of Excess Hazardous Materials And Abundant Technological Know-how, In Which Some Terrorists Clearly State Their Intention To Inflict Catastrophic Casualties. Were Such An Attack To Occur, It Would Not Only Cause Widespread Death And Destruction, But Would Stagger The World Economy... [creating] A Second Death Toll Throughout The Developing World.

Nuclear Terrorism

I Think That These Flows Of Refugee Are The Inevitable Counterparts To The Flow Of Capital And Goods. In Other Words, They Too Are By-products Of Globalisation.

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.

I Am Not Afraid To Dream. You First Have To Start With A Dream. Build Your Castles In The Air And Give It Foundation. Without A Dream, You Are Not Going To Get Anywhere.

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.

If Information And Knowledge Are Central To Democracy, They Are The Conditions For Development.

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.

I Think That These Flows Of Refugee Are The Inevitable Counterparts To The Flow Of Capital And Goods. In Other Words, They Too Are By-products Of Globalisation.

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

Open Markets Offer The Only Realistic Hope Of Pulling Billions Of People In Developing Countries Out Of Abject Poverty, While Sustaining Prosperity In The Industrialized World.

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.

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

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.

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.

If One Is Going To Err, One Should Err On The Side Of Liberty And Freedom.

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.

International Law Now Grants Rights To All Human Beings, Not Only To Citizens.

We Can Love What We Are, Without Hating What, And Who, We Are Not.

The Refugee Convention Of 1951 Was A Major Breakthrough, Outlining The Rights Of Those Displaced Across Borders As Well As The Legal Obligations Of States To Protect Them.

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

Difficult Times

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Microfinance Is An Idea Whose Time Has Come.

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.

As We Move Forward, You Cannot Resolve The Potential Food Crisis Or Shortages Without Science Being Part Of The Solution. Science Has To Be Part Of The Solution But African Governments - And These Are Decisions For Governments, Whether They Embrace Or Do Not Embrace Genetically Modified Food - And For The Moment, Most African Companies Do Not Accept Genetically Modified Seeds.

Neutrality Is A Tough Call For The Weaker Ones.

A Developed Country Is One That Allows All Its Citizens To Enjoy A Free And Healthy Life In A Safe Environment

Safe Environment

One Has To Have The Strength Of Character To Say The Time Has Come To Move On... Unless You Are A King.

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?

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 Think The World Has Moved On.

The [un Security Council] P5 Ought To Be Dissuaded From Using Their Veto Power, Which Can Paralyze The United Nations. The Country Blocking Action Ought To Have To Explain Its Decision And Propose An Alternative Solution. It Has Been Suggested That A Veto Only Becomes Effective If The Vetoing State Has The Support Of Two Or Three Other Permanent Members.

It Is Within The Family That Children Learn The Values That Will Guide Them For The Rest Of Their Lives. It Is Within The Family That They Form Their Earliest Relationships, Learn To Communicate With Others And Interact With The World Around Them. It Is Within The Family That The Notion Of Human Rights Becomes A Reality Lived On A Daily Basis. If Tolerance, Respect And Equity Permeate Family Life, They Will Translate Into Values That Shape Societies, Nations And The World.

A United Nations That Will Not Stand Up For Human Rights Is A United Nations That Cannot Stand Up For Itself.

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.

There Has To Be A Force On The Horizon That Can Come Very Quickly. But The Way We Run And Fund Peacekeeping, This Capacity Is Unavailable.

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

If The United Nations Is Not As United As It Should Be, That Is Because It Is A Reflection Of The World We Live In.

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

Inside And Outside

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, An Essential Complement To Investments In Roads, Dams, Clinics And Factories.

If We Can Come Up With Innovations And Train Young People To Take On New Jobs, And If We Can Switch To Clean Energy, I Think We Have The Capacity To Build This World Not Dependent On Fossil-fuel. I Think It Will Happen, And It Won't Destroy Economy.

Let Us Work In Partnerships Between Rich And Poor To Improve The Opportunities Of All Human Beings To Build Better Lives.

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.

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.

[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 Recognize That Extreme Poverty Anywhere Is A Threat To Human Security Everywhere. Let Us Recall That Poverty Is A Denial Of Human Rights. For The First Time In History, In This Age Of Unprecedented Wealth And Technical Prowess, We Have The Power To Save Humanity From This Shameful Scourge. Let Us Summon The Will To Do It.

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.

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.

Extreme Poverty Anywhere Is A Threat To Human Security Everywhere.

We Need To Ensure The Poorest In The Planet - Who Will Be Hardest Hit By The Financial Crisis - Are Not Forgotten.

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.

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

To Build A More Healthy, Peaceful And Equitable World The Classrooms Of The World Have To Be Full Of Girls As Well As Boys.

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

Business, Labor And Civil Society Organizations Have Skills And Resources That Are Vital In Helping To Build A More Robust Global Community.

Insecurity Is Love Dressed In A Child's Clothing.

On This International Day Of Un Peacekeepers, Let Us Pay Tribute To The Men And Women From Countries Across The World Who Serve Selflessly, Tirelessly And Fearlessly In Un Peacekeeping Operations. Let Us Remember The Heroes Who Have Laid Down Their Lives In Lands Far From Their Own In The Service Of Peace. And Let Us Reaffirm Our Commitment To Building A World Free From The Scourge Of War.

The Future Of Peace And Prosperity That We Seek For All The World's Peoples Needs A Foundation Of Tolerance, Security, Equality And Justice. That Foundation Is The Family. It Is Only By Protecting Families, From Famine As Well As From Fragmentation, That They Can Prosper And Contribute To The Family Of Nations That Is The United Nations.

You Will Recall That For Months After 9/11, There Was Incredible Support And Sympathy For The Us. I Really Hoped And Wished They Had Played On That, And Kept All These Friends They Had Made, And Found A Way Of Dealing With The Terrorists Through Co-operation Of International Intelligence Services, Police Exchange Of Information.

Intelligence Services

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.

We Don’t Need Any More Promises. We Need To Start Keeping The Promises We Already Made.

Education Is, Quite Simply, Peace-building By Another Name. It Is The Most Effective Form Of Defense Spending There Is.

...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

No One Is Born A Good Citizen Or A Good Democrat Or A Good Leader; It Takes Time And Education.

Invite Politicians To Dinner And Let Them Tell The World How Delicious It Is. . . . They Will Proudly Go Around And Say, 'i Ate Crickets, I Ate Locusts, And They Were Delicious.'

All Our Efforts To Defeat Poverty And Pursue Sustainable Development Will Be In Vain If Environmental Degradation And Natural Resource Depletion Continue Unabated.

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.

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.

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

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.

Knowledge Is Power. Information Is Liberating.

Knowledge Is Power

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.

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.

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.

You Have Made People Listen. You Have Made People Care, And You Have Taught Us That Whether We Are Poor Or Prosperous, We Have Only One World To Share. You Have Taught Young People That They Do Have The Power To Change The World.

If One Is Going To Err, One Should Err On The Side Of Liberty And Freedom.

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

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

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

Over Time You Get To Understand The Nature Of Man And The Environments You Are Dealing With, And You Can't Always Allow Emotions And Temper To Flare Up Because You're Displeased With Something, Or You Want To Change It.

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