Kofi Annan

I think that in the West, many citizens, especially younger citizens, take their freedoms and institutions for granted and focus on their…

— Kofi Annan

The preservation of biodiversity is not just a job for governments. International and non-governmental organisations, the private sector and each and every…

— Kofi Annan

Ameen Rihani, one of the earliest Arab Americans, devoted his life to bringing the East and the West together. We are not…

— Kofi Annan

If you have a problem and you can't find a solution, you meet again tomorrow and you keep talking until you find…

— Kofi Annan

Under international law, the responsibility for protecting civilians in conflict falls on the belligerents. Under military occupation, responsibility for the welfare of…

— Kofi Annan

Sometimes leaders slide from the role of freedom fighter into the presidency, which they may be unsuited for, but everyone accepts it…

— Kofi Annan

One has to learn from history. Quite frankly, it is almost impossible to have a sense of vision without a sense of…

— Kofi Annan

We cannot wait for governments to do it all. Globalization operates on Internet time. Governments tend to be slow moving by nature,…

— Kofi Annan

I am not afraid to dream. You first have to start with a dream. Build your castles in the air and give…

— Kofi Annan

Most people forget that even in Iraq, by the time the air and no-fly zone was established, the air defence system had…

— Kofi Annan

We need to promote greater tolerance and understanding among the peoples of the world. Nothing can be more dangerous to our efforts…

— Kofi Annan

I have often said that we have two UNs; the UN that is a Secretariat, that implements the mandates handed over to…

— Kofi Annan

Sadly, a prize for peace is a rarity in this world. Most nations have monuments or memorials to war, bronze salutations to…

— Kofi Annan

How can you have a world of today where India is not represented in the Security Council; Japan, the second contributor, is…

— Kofi Annan

When the US withdrew their troops from Somalia, I recall making a comment that [in] the way the peacekeepers had been withdrawn…

— Kofi Annan

Generals often find a way of dealing with generals on the officer-to-officer level. In the hierarchy of the military and with the…

— Kofi Annan

We're all human. After 10, 15 years you get tired, you run out of steam and ideas, you have to give a…

— Kofi Annan

It is not in the United Nations that the Millennium Development Goals will be achieved. They have to be achieved in each…

— Kofi Annan

In all these cases, part of the reasons for failure perhaps was not analyzing and assessing the true nature of the crisis,…

— Kofi Annan

The drafters of the [Refugee Convention ] had the Cold War in mind and mainly sought to protect a few thousand dissidents…

— Kofi Annan

It is impossible to realize our goals while discriminating against half the human race. As study after study has taught us, there…

— Kofi Annan

His Holiness brings a wealth of experience to this exalted office. The United Nations and the Holy See share a strong commitment…

— Kofi Annan

You have made people listen. You have made people care, and you have taught us that whether we are poor or prosperous,…

— Kofi Annan

There can be no doubt that these attacks are deliberate acts of terrorism, carefully planned and coordinated and as such I condemn…

— Kofi Annan

It is tragic that so few young people in Western democracies vote. They have forgotten that their ancestors fought for the right…

— Kofi Annan

Let us choose to unite the power of markets with the authority of universal ideals. Let us choose to reconcile the creative…

— Kofi Annan

Often, we take stability - peace in terms of security and economic activity - to mean a country is doing well. We…

— Kofi Annan

Jewish people have been victims of anti-Semitism in many parts of the world, and in Europe they were the target of the…

— Kofi Annan

This is a day on which we pay our respects to those who have endured the unimaginable. This is an occasion for…

— Kofi Annan

There is a certain tendency on the part of some Americans to treat the UN as a multilateralism à la carte where…

— Kofi Annan

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…

— Kofi Annan

We shall not defeat any of the infectious diseases that plague the developing world until we have also won the battle for…

— Kofi Annan

A hungry mind is not free, and I felt if we were really going to make a difference and fight poverty we…

— Kofi Annan

In an era of global abundance, our world has the resources to reduce dramatically the massive divides that persist between rich and…

— Kofi Annan

Let us, above all, be clear that, without a convincing program of debt relief to start the new millennium, our objective of…

— Kofi Annan

The question is the morning after. What sort of Iraq do we wake up to after the bombing? What happens in the…

— Kofi Annan

In countries where democracy is either non-existent or in development, on the other hand, citizens crave those freedoms. Maybe that is one…

— Kofi Annan

No nation can make itself secure by seeking supremacy over all others. We all share responsibility for each other's security, and only…

— Kofi Annan

After the end of the cold war, everybody thought, fantastic, finally the UN may be able to do what it was originally…

— Kofi Annan

To look into some aspects of the future, we do not need projections by supercomputers. Much of the next millennium can be…

— Kofi Annan