Background Image

...

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.

-Kofi Annan

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

In The Past We

Kofi Annan

...

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.

Views: 71231

Topic

More From Kofi Annan

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.

We Tend To Look At Countries In Terms Of Failed States And Functioning States, Which Is Rather Simplistic.

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.

We Need To Promote Greater Tolerance And Understanding Among The Peoples Of The World. Nothing Can Be More Dangerous To Our Efforts To Build Peace And Development Than A World Divided Along Religious, Ethnic Or Cultural Lines. In Each Nation, And Among All Nations, We Must Work To Promote Unity Based On Our Shared Humanity.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Literacy Is A Bridge From Misery To Hope.

We Need To Keep Hope Alive And Strive To Do Better.

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

We Often Hear A Lot About Subsidies, Because It's Often The Powerful Talking About The Poor; The Poor Don't Have Enough Voice To Question The Privileges.

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

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.

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.

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.

To Live Is To Choose. But To Choose Well, You Must Know Who You Are And What You Stand For, Where You Want To Go And Why You Want To Get There.

Today, No Walls Can Separate Humanitarian Or Human Rights Crises In One Part Of The World From National Security Crises In Another. What Begins With The Failure To Uphold The Dignity Of One Life All Too Often Ends With A Calamity For Entire Nations.

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

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.

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.

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 International Community... Allows Nearly 3 Billion People - Almost Half Of All Humanity - To Subsist On $2 Or Less A Day In A World Of Unprecedented Wealth.

It Has Been Said That Arguing Against Globalization Is Like Arguing Against The Laws Of Gravity.

Economic Globalization

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

You Are Never Too Young To Lead.

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

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

Jewish People Have Been Victims Of Anti-semitism In Many Parts Of The World, And In Europe They Were The Target Of The Holocaust, The Ultimate Abomination. Yet, We Cannot Expect Palestinians To Accept This As A Reason Why The Wrongs Done To Them.

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.

The Preservation Of Biodiversity Is Not Just A Job For Governments. International And Non-governmental Organisations, The Private Sector And Each And Every Individual Have A Role To Play In Changing Entrenched Outlooks And Ending Destructive Patterns Of Behaviour

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.

More Countries Have Understood That Women's Equality Is A Prerequisite For Development.

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

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.

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.

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

If We Get Agriculture Right In Africa, Where Most Of The People Now Are Working In That Sector, Not Only Would It Help Boost Development But We Will Be Secure In Terms Of Food And Nutrition And Then Be Able To Move On To Other Areas.

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

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.

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?

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.

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

It Has Been Said That Arguing Against Globalization Is Like Arguing Against The Laws Of Gravity.

Economic Globalization

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

You Are Never Too Young To Lead And You Should Never Doubt Your Capacity To Triumph Where Others Have Not.

I Can't Think Of A 30- Or 40-year-old Who Can Behave Like Mugabe. They Wouldn't Even Know Where To Begin, And Given Their Own Educational Exposure, I Think It Will Be Very Positive For Africa.

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

Economic Globalization

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.

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.

Let Us All Reaffirm Our Commitment To Improving The Well- Being Of Families Throughout The World.

For Everyone, Everywhere, Literacy Is, Along With Education In General, A Basic Human Right.

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.

...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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Let Us Remember The Large Numbers Of Citizens Who, Day In And Day Out, Through Acts Of Volunteerism Large And Small, Bring Hope To So Many Of The World's Disadvantaged. Let Us Ensure That This Wonderful Resource, Available In Abundance To Every Nation, Is Recognized And Supported As It Works Towards A More Prosperous And Peaceful World.

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.

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.

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.

In An Age Where Community Involvement And Partnerships With Civil Society Are Increasingly Being Recognized As Indispensable, There Is Clearly A Growing Potential For Cooperative Development And Renewal Worldwide.

To Live Is To Choose.

The Drafters Of The [refugee Convention ] Had The Cold War In Mind And Mainly Sought To Protect A Few Thousand Dissidents From The Communist Bloc. They Did Not Envision The Mass Displacements Of People We Are Seeing Today.

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.

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.

Extreme Poverty Anywhere Is A Threat To Human Security Everywhere.

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.

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

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.

[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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

The Number One Goal In Resolving A Conflict Is To Make Sure Both Sides Maintain Their Self-esteem. You Don't Hit A Man On The Head When You've Got Your Fingers Between His Teeth.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Drugs Have Destroyed Many Lives, But Wrongheaded Governmental Policies Have Destroyed Many More. I Think It's Obvious That After 40 Years Of War On Drugs, It Has Not Worked. There Should Be Decriminalization Of Drugs.

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.

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

Microfinance Is An Idea Whose Time Has Come.

Knowledge Is Power. Information Is Liberating.

Knowledge Is Power

There Are Lots Of Questions Which Have To Be Answered.

Education Is A Human Right With Immense Power To Transform

Democracies Have

Neutrality Is A Tough Call For The Weaker Ones.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

We Need To Keep Hope Alive And Strive To Do Better.

...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

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.

On This International Day Of Peace, Let Us Dare To Imagine A World Free Of Conflict And Violence

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

Making A Difference

You Can Do A Lot With Diplomacy, But With Diplomacy Backed Up By Force You Can Get A Lot More Done.

Insecurity Is Love Dressed In A Child's Clothing.

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

Tolerance, Inter-cultural Dialogue And Respect For Diversity Are More Essential Than Ever In A World Where Peoples Are Becoming More And More Closely Interconnected.

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

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.

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

To Live Is To Choose.

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.

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.

Generals Often Find A Way Of Dealing With Generals On The Officer-to-officer Level. In The Hierarchy Of The Military And With The Almost Similar Structure And Similar Language, They Find A Way Of Dealing With Each Other.

Without A Dream You'll Not Get Anywhere.

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.

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.

The Number One Goal In Resolving A Conflict Is To Make Sure Both Sides Maintain Their Self-esteem. You Don't Hit A Man On The Head When You've Got Your Fingers Between His Teeth.

The Drafters Of The [refugee Convention ] Had The Cold War In Mind And Mainly Sought To Protect A Few Thousand Dissidents From The Communist Bloc. They Did Not Envision The Mass Displacements Of People We Are Seeing Today.

Literacy Is At The Heart Of Sustainable Development

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.

To Educate Girls Is To Reduce Poverty.

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.

Education Is A Human Right With Immense Power To Transform

Democracies Have

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.

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.

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.

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

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

I Urge The Iraqi Leadership For Sake Of Its Own People... To Seize This Opportunity And Thereby Begin To End The Isolation And Suffering Of The Iraqi People.

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

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.

Each Crisis Is Different, Has Its Own Specificities, And We Need To Look At It Critically; Look At Each One In Its Own Terms.

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.

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

This Is A Day On Which We Pay Our Respects To Those Who Have Endured The Unimaginable. This Is An Occasion For The World To Speak Up Against The Unspeakable. It Is Long Overdue That A Day Be Dedicated To Remembering And Supporting The Many Victims And Survivors Of Torture Around The World.

If We Are To Make Poverty History, We Must Have The Active Participation Of States, Civil Society And The Private Sector, As Well As Individual Volunteers.

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.

Nelson Mandela Stands As An Inspiration To Us All

Microfinance Recognizes That Poor People Are Remarkable Reservoirs Of Energy And Knowledge

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.

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.

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

More Countries Have Understood That Women's Equality Is A Prerequisite For Development.

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

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.

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?

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.

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

World Government

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

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

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.

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.

Contrary To Popular Belief, We Do Not Face A Choice Between Economy And Ecology, It Is Often Said That Protecting The Environment Would Constrain Or Even Undermine Economic Growth. In Fact, The Opposite Is True: Unless We Protect Resources And The Earth's Natural Capital, We Shall Not Be Able To Sustain Economic Growth.

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

Safe Environment

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.

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

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.

[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.

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

Intelligence Can Be Used To Manipulate.

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.

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 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.

These Often Unsung Heroes Understand...that Poverty, Disease And Famine Are Just As Deadly And Destructive As Earthquakes, Hurricanes And Tsunamis. Individuals ...are Taking On These Challenges In Their Communities, Volunteering To Make A Difference. They Remain The True Champions Of Our Work Towards The Millennium Development Goals.

Trending Author

Hans-Georg Gadamer

Category