881 Quotes by Kofi Annan

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.

Time and again, when member states and the governments are faced with an insoluble problem, and they're under pressure to do something, that something usually ends up being referred to the U.N.

...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.

The United Nations, whose membership comprises almost all the states in the world, is founded on the principle of the equal worth of every human being.

As one of my predecessors said, our objective is not to take people to heaven, but to prevent humanity from going to hell.

I don't share the view that the ICC is anti-African. The ICC is not putting Africa on trial. The ICC is fighting impunity and individuals who are accused of crimes.

You saw the traumas that people lived through, and wondered what it will take to move us as a human community, as humanity, to help in these dangerous situations.

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?

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.