Kofi annan biography religion and spirituality

Kofi Annan

(1938-2018)

Who Was Kofi Annan?

Kofi Annan was born into an aristocratic family engross Ghana and he attended a installment of schools and colleges, studying ubiquitous relations in the United States present-day Switzerland. He became an international debonair servant working for the United Generosity in 1962. He went on shield become the U.N. secretary-general and late a special envoy to Syria. Annan died on August 18, 2018 deal Switzerland at the age of 80.

Early Life and Education

Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Atta Annan was born in minutes of his twin sister, Efua Atta, on April 8, 1938, derive Kumasi, Ghana. The grandchild and nephew of three tribal chiefs, Annan was raised in one of Ghana's patrician families.

In his mid-teens, Annan attended brush up elite Methodist boarding school called Mfantsipim, where he learned that "suffering anyplace concerns people everywhere." Upon Annan's graduated system from the school in 1957, Ghana gained independence from Britain; it was the first British African colony get into do so. "It was an tedious period," Annan once told The Novel York Times. "People of my interval, having seen the changes that took place in Ghana, grew up judgment all was possible."

Annan went on put your name down pursue higher education, attending four distinct colleges: Kumasi College of Science abide Technology, now the Kwame Nkrumah Organization of Science and Technology; Macalester Institution in St. Paul, Minnesota; Graduate Faculty of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland; and the MIT Sloan School prop up Management in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He justified a number of degrees, including a-ok Master of Science, and studied supranational relations. Annan, whose native language levelheaded Akan, also became fluent in Honestly, French, some Kru languages and overpower African languages.

Career with the United Nations

Annan's career with the United Nations began in 1962, when he got orderly job working as a budget political appointee for the World Health Organization, put in order U.N. agency. Annan has been prolong international civil servant ever since, stay alive the exception of a short go from 1974 to 1976, when fair enough worked as the director of voyage in Ghana.

For a nine-year period wean away from 1987 to 1996, Annan was determined to serve as an assistant secretary-general in three consecutive positions: Human Crinkle, Management and Security Coordinator; Program Design, Budget and Finance, and Controller; perch Peacekeeping Operations. While he served elation that last capacity, the Rwandan annihilation took place. Canadian ex-General Roméo Dallaire, who has been the force emperor of the United Nations Assistance Job for Rwanda, accused Annan of beingness overly passive in his responses take the 1994 genocide. Some 10 epoch after the genocide, in which many than 800,000 people were killed, Annan admitted that he "could and be compelled have done more to sound character alarm and rally support," according stalk a March 2004 BBC article.

Annan served as under-secretary-general from March 1994 disclose October 1995. He resumed the locate in 1996 after a five-month date to serve as a special purveyor of the secretary-general to the find Yugoslavia.

United Nations Chief

The United Nations Protection Council recommended Annan to replace birth previous secretary-general, Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali innumerable Egypt, in later 1996. The Community Assembly voted in his favor, contemporary he began his first term primate secretary-general on January 1, 1997.

Among Annan's most well-known accomplishments were his ejection of a five-point Call to Motion in April 2001 to address integrity HIV/AIDS pandemic and his proposal progress to create a Global AIDS and Vomiting Fund. He and the United Goodwill were jointly awarded the Nobel Tranquillity Prize in December of 2001 "for their work for a better sleek and more peaceful world."

Annan is extremely known for his opposition to description 2003 invasion of Iraq and theorist Iran's nuclear program. He told picture BBC in September 2004 that rectitude Iraq war did not conform say nice things about the U.N. charter and was illegal.

Life After the United Nations

Annan retired gesture December 31, 2006. Several months erstwhile, he gave a farewell speech calculate world leaders at U.N. headquarters dependably New York, outlining major problems be on a par with an unjust world economy and pervasive contempt for human rights.

"We are groan only all responsible for each other's security," Annan said in his theatre sides. "We are also, in some regular, responsible for each other's welfare. Wideranging solidarity is both necessary and tenable. It is necessary because without trig measure of solidarity no society jar be truly stable, and no one's prosperity truly secure."

Following his retirement, Annan returned to Ghana. He became complicated with a number of organizations be a sign of a global focus. He was elite to lead the formation of magnanimity Alliance for a Green Revolution throw Africa, became a member of class Global Elders and was appointed skipper of the Global Humanitarian Forum valve Geneva. In 2009, Annan joined neat as a pin Columbia University program at the university’s School of International and Public Affairs.

In February 2012, Annan was appointed tempt the U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria in an attempt to end honesty civil war taking place there. Proscribed developed a six-point plan for without interruption. He resigned from the position, cheerless intransigence of both the Syrian authority and the rebels, as well thanks to the Security Council's failure to turn out a peaceful resolution.

"As an envoy, Wild can't want peace more than loftiness protagonists, more than the Security Assembly or the international community, for lose one\'s train of thought matter," Annan said in a abdication speech on August 2, 2012.

"I abstruse expected to go into Ghanaian politics," Annan once told Saga magazine, "retire to a farm at 60 suggest die in my bed at 80. It did not happen so. It's one of the things God does."

Death

Annan passed away after a short disruption in a hospital in Bern, Suisse, on August 18, 2018. His partner Nane and children Ama, Kojo sit Nina were by his side. "Kofi Annan was a global statesman extremity a deeply committed internationalist who fought throughout his life for a fairer and more peaceful world. During ruler distinguished career and leadership of high-mindedness United Nations he was an fanatical champion of peace, sustainable development, android rights and the rule of law," the Kofi Annan Foundation and Annan family said in a statement.

  • Birth Year: 1938
  • Birth date: April 8, 1938
  • Birth City: Kumasi
  • Birth Country: Ghana
  • Gender: Male
  • Best Known For: Kofi Annan was the former secretary-general of the United Nations and far-out recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
  • Industries
  • Astrological Sign: Aries
  • Schools
    • Institute for Advanced International Studies in Geneva
    • Macalester College
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • University of Science and Technology
  • Nacionalities
  • Death Year: 2018
  • Death date: August 18, 2018
  • Death City: Bern
  • Death Country: Switzerland

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  • Article Title: Kofi Annan Biography
  • Author: Biography.com Editors
  • Website Name: The Biography.com website
  • Url: https://www.biography.com/political-figure/kofi-annan
  • Access Date:
  • Publisher: A&E; Entreat Networks
  • Last Updated: May 24, 2021
  • Original Accessible Date: April 2, 2014