Kofi Annan

Kofi Atta Annan,born 8 April 1938) is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006. Annan and the United Nations were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for his founding the Global AIDS and Health Fund to support developing countries in their struggle to care for their people.

Early career

In 1962, Kofi Annan started working as a Budget Officer for the World Health Organization, an agency of the United Nations (UN). From 1974 to 1976, he worked as the Director of Tourism in Ghana. In the late 1980s, Annan returned to work for the UN, where he was appointed as an Assistant Secretary-General in three consecutive positions: Human Resources, Management and Security Coordinator (1987–1990); Program Planning, Budget and Finance, and Controller (1990–1992); and Peacekeeping Operations (March 1993-December 1996).

The Rwandan Genocide took place in 1994 while Annan directed UN Peacekeeping Operations. In 2003 Canadian ex-General Roméo Dallaire, who was force commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda, claimed that Annan was overly passive in his response to the imminent genocide. In his book Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda (2003), General Dallaire asserted that Annan held back UN troops from intervening to settle the conflict, and from providing more logistical and material support. Dallaire claimed that Annan failed to provide responses to his repeated faxes asking for access to a weapons depository; such weapons could have helped Dallaire defend the endangered Tutsis. In 2004, ten years after the genocide in which an estimated 800,000 people were killed, Annan said, "I could and should have done more to sound the alarm and rally support.

Annan served as Under-Secretary-General from March 1994 to October 1995. He was appointed a Special Representative of the Secretary-General to the former Yugoslavia, serving for five months before returning to his duties as Under-Secretary-General in April 1996.

Farewell addresses

On 19 September 2006, Annan gave a farewell address to world leaders gathered at the UN headquarters in New York, in anticipation of his retirement on 31 December. In the speech he outlined three major problems of "an unjust world economy, world disorder, and widespread contempt for human rights and the rule of law", which he believes "have not resolved, but sharpened" during his time as Secretary-General. He also pointed to violence in Africa, and the Arab-Israeli conflict as two major issues warranting attention.

On 11 December 2006, in his final speech as Secretary-General, delivered at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, Annan recalled Truman's leadership in the founding of the United Nations. He called for the United States to return to President Truman's multilateralist foreign policies, and to follow Truman's credo that "the responsibility of the great states is to serve and not dominate the peoples of the world". He also said that the United States must maintain its commitment to human rights, "including in the struggle against terrorism.

Honours and awards

Honours

2000: Companion of the Order of the Star of Ghana[

2001: Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the Star of Romania

2005: Grand Collar of the Order of Liberty (Portugal)

2006: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion

2007: Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold with Sash for Services to the Republic of Austria

2007: Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) from Queen Elizabeth II (UK)

2008: Grand Cross 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

Awards

2000: Kora All Africa Music Awards in the category of Lifetime Achievement

2001: Nobel Foundation, The Nobel Peace Prize, jointly presented to Kofi Annan and the United Nations

2002: winner of the "Profiles in Courage Award", given by the JFK Memorial Museum

2003: Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

2006: International World Order of Culture, Science and Education, Award of the European Academy of Informatization, Belgium

2006: Inter Press Service, International Achievement Award for Annan's lasting contributions to peace, security, and development

2006: Olof Palme Prize

2007: Wooden Crossbow, special award from the Swiss World Economic Forum

2007: People in Europe Award of Verlagsgruppe Passau

MacArthur Foundation, MacArthur Award for International Justice

2007: North-South Prize of the Council of Europe

2008: Peace of Westphalia Prize

2008: Harvard University Honors Prize

2008: Gottlieb Duttweiler Prize

2008: Peace of Westphalia Prize - Münster (Westfalen)

2008: Open Society Award - CEU Business School Budapest