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| * ], Honorary Doctorate, ], ] | * ], Honorary Doctorate, ], ] | ||
| ==Quotations by Kofi Annan== | |||
| {{wikiquote}} | |||
| *"What begins with the failure to uphold the dignity of one life all too often ends with a calamity for entire nations." - Human Development Reports 2005/Violent 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." - ], ], message for the new millennium | |||
| * "You can do a lot with diplomacy, but with diplomacy backed up by force you can get a lot more done." - ], ], regarding the use of force to gain compliance from Saddam Hussein | |||
| * "Well, the issue of a standing UN army has been raised by many because, quite frankly, the way we operate today is like telling Ottawa that I know you need a fire station but we will build one when the fire breaks. We have no army. When the crisis breaks then we begin to put an army together. We go around to governments and begin asking for troops. The question with a standing UN army is that it raises issues of budget issues, legal issues, where do you place it, under what jurisdiction? And the big boys, big countries don't want it. The smaller countries are also nervous." | |||
| * "He is very calm - very, very calm. Never raises his voice. Well-informed, contrary to the sense outside that he is ill-informed and isolated. And decisive." (] ] press conference regarding ] - ) | |||
| * "I think you're being very cheeky. Listen ], you've been behaving like an overgrown schoolboy in this room for many, many months and years. You are an embarrassment to your colleagues and to your profession. Please stop misbehaving and please let's move on to a serious subject," when asked if he bought a Mercedes tax-free for his son, who was the subject of the Oil-for-food program scandal. Reuters ] ] | |||
| * "The intention was really to do something dignified, something that is honest and reflects the work that this organisation does. And it is with that spirit that the producers and the directors approached their work, and I hope you will all agree they have done that." ] ] - Secretary-General's press encounter comments on the film ] | |||
| * "The greatest moment of the race is not the touch of the wall, or when one swimmer begins to pull ahead of the pack. The greatest moment takes place before the pistol even fires; when for a brief time, no nation is greater or smaller, stronger or weaker than any other. For me, that is the Olympic moment." Olympics 2004 - Celebrate Humanity 2004 campaign. | |||
| * "The report ]] demonstrates beyond all doubt that the last two years have been little short of hell on earth for our fellow human beings in Darfur." 17 February 2005 | |||
| ==Quotations about Kofi Annan== | |||
| * ''We not only have confidence in him, we support him fully. He is in a very difficult job under very difficult circumstances, but we continue to have hope that he is doing his best. We only want his senior management to exhibit the transparency and accountability that he has proscribed'' (sic) ''for the organization.'' | |||
| <div align="right">— ], president of the ]</div> | |||
| * ''We in Europe hold Kofi Annan in high esteem and recognise his unstinting efforts in the cause of peace and democracy.'' | |||
| <div align="right">— ]</div> | |||
| * ''We are not suggesting or pushing for the resignation of the secretary-general. We have worked well with him in the past and look forward to working with him for some time in the future.'' | |||
| {{right|— ] ambassador ]}} | |||
| ==References== | ==References== | ||
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| Kofi Atta Annan | |
|---|---|
| File:KofiAnnan-StateDept.jpg | |
| 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 1, 1997 | |
| Preceded by | Boutros Boutros-Ghali |
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 8, 1938 Kumasi, Ghana |
| Nationality | ghanaian |
| Spouse | Nane Maria Annan |
Kofi Atta Annan (born April 8, 1938) is a Ghanaian diplomat and the seventh and current Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Early years and family
Annan was born to Henry Reginald and Victoria Annan in the Kofandros section of Kumasi, Ghana. As with most Akan names, his name indicates the day of the week he was born and place in his family: Kofi indicates a boy born on a Friday, and Annan denotes that he was the fourth child of his family. Annan was a twin, an occurrence that is regarded as special in Ghanaian culture; his twin sister Efua Atta died in 1991. Atta means twin in Fante.
Annan's family was part of the country's elite; both of his grandfathers and his uncle were tribal chiefs. His father was half Asante and half Fante; his mother was Fante. Annan's father worked for a long period as an export manager for the Lever Brothers cocoa company.
Annan is married to Nane Maria Annan, a Swedish lawyer and artist who is the half-niece of Raoul Wallenberg. Of their three children, Kojo Annan and Ama Annan are from Kofi Annan's previous marriage with Nigerian Titi Alakija. They divorced in the late 1970s. Their third child, Nina Cronstedt de Groot, is from a previous marriage of Nane Annan. Kojo Annan was in the headlines in 2005 because of his involvement in the Oil for Food programme.
Education
From 1954 to 1957, Annan attended the elite Mfantsipim school, a Methodist boarding school in Cape Coast founded in the 1870s. Annan has said that the school taught him "that suffering anywhere concerns people everywhere". In 1957, the year Annan graduated from Mfantsipim, Ghana became the first British colony in Sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence.
In 1958, Annan began studying for a degree in economics at the Kumasi College of Science and Technology, now the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology of Ghana. He received a Ford Foundation grant, enabling him to complete his undergraduate studies at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, United States in 1961. Annan then studied at the Graduate Institute of International Studies (Institut universitaire des hautes études internationales IUHEI) in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1961–62, later attending the MIT Sloan School of Management (1971–72) Sloan Fellows programme and receiving a Master's degree in Management (M.B.A.).
Annan is fluent in English, French, Fante and other dialects of Akan, and other African languages.
Early career
Annan started working for the World Health Organization, an agency of the United Nations, in 1962. From 1974 to 1976, Annan worked as the Director of Tourism in Ghana.
Following that, he returned to work for the United Nations as an Assistant Secretary-General in three consecutive positions: Human Resources Management and Security Coordinator from 1987 to 1990, Programme Planning, Budget and Finance, and Controller from 1990 to 1992, and Peacekeeping Operations from March 1993 to February 1994.
In his book Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, ex-General Roméo Dallaire who was force commander of the UNAMIR claims that Annan has been overly passive in his response to the 1994 Tutsi genocide in Rwanda. Gen. Dallaire explicitly stated that the then Undersecretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations held back UN troops from intervening to settle the conflict and from providing more logistic and material support. For example, he claimed that Annan failed to provide any responses to Dallaire's repeated faxes asking him for access to a weapons depository, something that could have helped defend the Tutsis. Dallaire concedes however that Annan was a man whom he found extremely "committed" to the founding principles of the United Nations.
Annan was then an Undersecretary-General until October 1995, when he was made a Special Representative of the Secretary-General to the former Yugoslavia, serving for five months in this capacity and returning to his duties as Undersecretary-General in April 1996.
Secretary-General of the United Nations
On December 13, 1996, Annan was selected by the UN Security Council to be Secretary-General and was confirmed four days later by the General Assembly. Annan took the oath of office without delay, starting his first term as Secretary-General on January 1, 1997. Annan replaced outgoing Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt, becoming the first person from a black African nation to become Secretary-General.
Annan's Secretary-Generalship was renewed on January 1, 2002, an unusual deviation from informal policy. The office usually rotates around the continents, with two terms each; since Annan's predecessor Ghali was also an African (he was Egyptian), normally Annan would have only served one term. However, in this case Annan was able to secure reappointment. Annan can remain in office until 31 December 2006.
In April 2001, the Secretary-General issued a five-point "Call to Action" to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Annan sees this pandemic as his "personal priority" as Secretary-General and in life in general. He proposed the establishment of a Global AIDS and Health Fund to stimulate increased spending needed to help developing countries confront the HIV/AIDS crisis.
On December 10, 2001, Annan and the United Nations jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize, "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world".
Annan was Secretary-General during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and called for the United States and the United Kingdom not to invade without UN support. In 2004 Annan called the invasion and occupation illegal.
Annan supports sending a UN peacekeeping mission to Darfur, Sudan, and is working with the government of Sudan to accept a transfer of power from the African Union peacekeeping mission to a UN one.
UN Controversies during Annan's tenure
Lubbers sexual harassment investigation
In June 2004, Annan was given a copy of the OIOS report on the complaint of sexual harassment, abuse of authority and retaliation against Ruud Lubbers, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and sexual harassment and misconduct as well against Werner Blatter, Director of UNHCR Personnel by a long-serving staff member. The investigation report found Ruud Lubbers guilty of sexual harassment and no mention was made publicly of the other charge against a senior official or the two subsequent complaints she filed later that year. In the course of the official investigation, Lubbers wrote a letter that some speculate was a threat to the female worker who had brought the charges of misconduct. However, on July 15, 2004, Lubbers was declared innocent by Kofi Annan. His decision only lasted until November when OIOS issued its annual report to the UN General Assembly noting it has found Lubbers guilty. Widely reported in the media, these events served to weaken Annan's position.
On November 17, 2004, Annan accepted a report clearing UN Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services Dileep Nair of graft and sexual harassment charges, some viewed as retaliation against Nair for supporting the complainant in the Lubbers affair. Still, clearance was not viewed favorably by some UN staff in NY, leading to extensive debate on November 19.
Administration of the Oil for Food Programme
In December 2004, United States Republican Senator Norm Coleman called for Annan's resignation after reports surfaced that his son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna Inspection SA, which won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil for Food program. Annan called for an investigation into this matter.
The Independent Inquiry Committee into The United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme was appointed by Annan and led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, in spite of the latter's strong ideological ties to the UN as director of the United Nations Association of the United States of America. In his first interview with the Inquiry Committee, Annan denied having had a meeting with Cotecna. Later in the inquiry he recalled that he had met with Cotecna's chief executive Elie-Georges Massey twice. In a final report issued on October 27, the committee exonerated Kofi Annan of any illegal actions, but found fault with the UN management structure and the Security Council oversight. It strongly recommended a new position of Chief Operating Officer to handle the fiscal and administrative responsibilities which currently fall to the Secretary General's office. The report listed the companies, both Western and Middle Eastern, who illegally benefited from the Program. Some believe the committee and its outcome to have been politically motivated.
Conflict between the United States and the United Nations
Kofi Annan supported his deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown, who openly criticized the United States in a speech on June 6, 2006: 'The prevailing practice of seeking to use the U.N. almost by stealth as a diplomatic tool while failing to stand up for it against its domestic critics is simply not sustainable...You will lose the U.N. one way or another.'. US-ambassador John Bolton said to Annan on the phone: 'I've known you since 1989 and I'm telling you this is the worst mistake by a senior U.N. official that I have seen in that entire time.' Background to the problems are the war on Iraq and the recent attempts at reform of the UN. The presidential administration of the United States felt abandoned by the United Nations for the war on Iraq, while many officials of the United Nations felt abused by the United States. Meanwhile, the reforms of the UN remain hard to implement, because Third World countries are afraid that the United Nations will become a puppet of the US thereafter. Public opinion in the United States is often very negative about Kofi Annan and his reforms,. Kofi Annan is afraid that the United Nations will collapse due to the American attitude. Indeed, Richard Holbrooke, in his article “Authentically Liberal” within the journal Foreign Affairs (July/August 2006, Vol. 85, Number 4) alleges that “The new breed of 'neoconservative' has a reflexive horror of most forms of international institutions: whereas Jeane Kirkpatrick supports strengthening the United Nations through reform, for instance, most younger 'neoconservatives' would like to see the organization weakened or abolished.”
Recommended reforms
On March 21, 2005, Annan presented a progress report, In Larger Freedom, to the UN General Assembly. Annan recommended Security Council expansion and a host of other UN reforms.
On March 7, 2006, he presented to the General Assembly his proposals for a fundamental overhaul of the United Nations Secretariat. The reform report is entitled: "Investing in the United Nations, For a Stronger Organization Worldwide".
Outside the United States, Annan has few opponents; he has the unanimous support of the UN Security Council. Mark Malloch Brown has served as Chef de Cabinet to the Secretary-General since January 2005. Louise Fréchette is his Deputy Secretary-General.
Honors
- Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, (Kumasi), Honorary Doctor of Science, August 24, 1998
- United Nations Mandated University for Peace, Honorary President, 1999
- Lund University, Honorary Doctor of Law, Spring 1999
- National University of Ireland, Doctor of Law, January 22, 1999
- Dresden University of Technology, doctor honoris causa, April 26, 1999
- University of Notre Dame, Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, May 21, 2000
- Nobel Foundation, The Nobel Peace Prize, jointly presented to Kofi Annan and the United Nations, 2001
- Seton Hall University, John C. Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Honorary Doctorate, February, 2001
- Free University of Berlin, doctor honoris causa, July 13, 2001
- Northwestern University, Doctor of Laws, June 21, 2002
- 2002 winner of the "Profiles of Courage Award," given by the JFK Memorial Museum.
- University of Pittsburgh, honorary Doctor of Public and International Affairs degree October 21, 2003
- Ghent University (Flanders), doctor honoris cause March 21, 2003
- Carleton University, Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, March 9, 2004
- University of Ottawa, Doctor of the University Degree, March 9, 2004
- University of Pennsylvania, Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, May 16, 2005
- Grand Collar of the Order of Liberty (Portugal), October 11, 2005
- Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Doctor Honoris Causa, October 12, 2005
- The George Washington University, Doctor of Public Service, May 5, 2006
- University of Tokyo, Honorary Doctorate, May 18, 2006
References
- Annan, Kofi: In Larger Freedom, 21 March 2005.
Notes
- Jan Tromp, Relatie Washington en VN is danig verziekt (De Volkskrant, zaterdag 10 juni 2006) 6.
See also
- Rwandan Genocide
- Mark Malloch Brown (Annan's Deputy Secretary-General)
- Oil for Food program (UN Scandal)
- Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Ghana
External links
Biographies, interviews, and profiles
- Official UN biography
- Nobel Peace Prize biography
- Kofi Annan – Nobel Lecture
- Kofi Annan: Center of the Storm Detailed PBS profile. Includes interactive biography and map of Annan's worldwide travels, among other things. Requires Flash.
- Kofi Annan: An Online News Hour Focus A compliation of information, interviews, and initiatives about and by Kofi Annan, by the website of the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. From 1998-1999.
- Kofi Annan: Biographical Note Basic biography by Phyllis Bennis of the Global Policy Forum.
- One-on-one with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan October 1998 interview of Kofi Annan by Kevin Chappell of Ebony.
- Prominent People - Kofi Annan
- Annan Article in Saga Magazine
Speeches
News and views
- The United Nations Homepage
- United Nations Secretary-General Homepage
- Norm Coleman, The Wall Street Journal, December 1 2004, "Kofi Annan Must Go: It's time for the secretary-general to resign"
- U.N. Chief's Record Comes Under Fire
- Ian Williams, The Guardian, 20 September 2005, "Annan has paid his dues: The UN declaration of a right to protect people from their governments is a millennial change"
| Secretaries-general of the League of Nations and the United Nations | ||
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| League of Nations (1919–1945) |
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- Living people
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