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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?

Kofi Annan

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Kofi Annan
Age: 80 †
Born: 1938
Born: April 8
Died: 2018
Died: August 18
Diplomat
Economist
Politician
Coomassie
Kofi Atta Annan
Annan
Kofi A. Annan
Take
Conferences
Many
Chaos
Going
Killing
Much
Continue
Coming
Risk
Suffering
Warranted
Lives
Conference

More quotes by Kofi Annan

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Asked whether donor nations may be becoming fatigued ... The fatigue may be there, but I don't think we can justify it in the face of such misery. We may need to wake up our conscience and our conscience must force us to act.
Kofi Annan
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From this vision of the role of the United Nations in the next century flow three key priorities for the future: eradicating poverty, preventing conflict and promoting democracy.
Kofi Annan
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The question is the morning after. What sort of Iraq do we wake up to after the bombing? What happens in the region? What impact could it have? These are questions leaders I have spoken to have posed.
Kofi Annan
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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.
Kofi Annan
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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.
Kofi Annan
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For everyone, everywhere, literacy is, along with education in general, a basic human right.
Kofi Annan
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I often quote an African proverb that says: The world is not ours, the earth is not ours, It's a treasure we hold in trust for future generations. And I often hope we will be worthy of that trust.
Kofi Annan
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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.
Kofi Annan
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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.
Kofi Annan
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The reality is that no group of countries has any grounds for complacency about its own human rights performance and no group of countries does itself justice by automatically slipping into the victim mode . . . .
Kofi Annan
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We have to choose between a global market driven only by calculations of short-term profit, and one which has a human face.
Kofi Annan
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International law now grants rights to all human beings, not only to citizens.
Kofi Annan
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We must restore the sacredness of the family as a bedrock of humane values everywhere, in peace as well as in war.
Kofi Annan
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The right to development is the measure of the respect of all other human rights.That should be our aim: a situation in which all individuals are enabled to maximize their potential, and to contribute to the evolution of society as a whole.
Kofi Annan
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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.
Kofi Annan
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When women thrive, all of society benefits, and succeeding generations are given a better start in life.
Kofi Annan
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The report [by a UN commission on Darfur] demonstrates beyond all doubt that the last two years have been little short of hell on earth for our fellow human beings in Darfur.
Kofi Annan
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The future belongs to you, but it can only belong to you if you participate and take charge
Kofi Annan
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If you are neutral in a situation where one side is patently being mistreated, the conclusion is that you're siding with this wrong.
Kofi Annan
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Poverty devastates families, communities and nations. It causes instability and political unrest and fuels conflict.
Kofi Annan