Biography
Kofi Atta Annan (8 April 1938 – 18 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder and chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation, as well as chairman of The Elders, an international organisation founded by Nelson Mandela. Annan joined the United Nations in 1962, working for the World Health Organization's Geneva office. He went on to work in several capacities at the UN Headquarters, including serving as the under-secretary-general for peacekeeping between March 1992 and December 1996. He was appointed secretary-general on 13 December 1996 by the Security Council and later confirmed by the General Assembly, making him the first officeholder to be elected from the UN staff itself. He was re-elected for a second term in 2001 and was succeeded as secretary-general by Ban Ki-moon in 2007. As secretary-general, Annan reformed the UN bureaucracy, worked to combat HIV/AIDS (especially in Africa) and launched the UN Global Compact. He was criticised for not expanding the Security Council and faced calls for his resignation after an investigation into the Oil-for-Food Programme, but was largely exonerated of personal corruption. After the end of his term as secretary-general, he founded the Kofi Annan Foundation in 2007 to work on international development. In 2012, Annan was the UN–Arab League Joint Special Representative for Syria to help find a resolution to the Syrian civil war. Annan quit after becoming frustrated with the UN's lack of progress with regards to conflict resolution. In September 2016, Annan was appointed to lead a UN commission to investigate the Rohingya crisis. He died in 2018 and was given a state funeral. Description above from the Wikipedia article Kofi Annan, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Awards & recognition
- Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences · 2013
- Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour · 2013
- Confucius Peace Prize · 2012
- Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic · 2010
- Medal of honor Dag Hammarskjold · 2009
Show all 70 awards →
- Freedom Award · 2008
- honorary doctor of the University of Neuchâtel · 2008
- Bruno Kreisky Award — Services to Human Rights · 2007
- Gold Olympic Order · 2007
- Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun · 2007
- North–South Prize · 2007
- Grand Cross of Honor — Services to the Republic of Austria · 2006
- Olof Palme Prize · 2006
- Four Freedoms Award – Freedom Medal · 2004
- honorary doctor of Harvard University · 2004
- honorary doctorate from Carleton University · 2004
- Honorary doctors of Ghent University · 2004
- Indira Gandhi Peace Prize · 2003
- Sakharov Prize · 2003
- honorary doctor of the Zhejiang University · 2002
- Honorary doctorate from the University of Geneva · 2002
- honorary doctorate of the University of Alcala · 2002
- Profile in Courage Award · 2002
- Torstein Dale Memorial Prize · 2002
- Honorary doctor of the Free University of Berlin · 2001
- honorary doctorate from Brown University · 2001
- J. William Fulbright Prize · 2001
- Nobel Peace Prize · 2001
- Philadelphia Liberty Medal · 2001
- Kora Awards · 2000
- honorary doctor of Comenius University · 1999
- honorary doctor of the Dresden University of Technology · 1999
- honorary doctor of the Howard University · 1999
- honorary doctor of the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne · 1998
- Annenberg Award — Excellence in Diplomacy
- Collar of the Order of the Star of Romania
- Decoration of Honour — Services to the Republic of Austria
- Dostyk Order of grade I
- Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- FIFA Order of Merit
- Gottlieb Duttweiler Prize
- Grand Collar of the Order of Good Hope
- Grand Collar of the Order of Liberty
- Grand Cross 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
- Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland
- Grand Cross of the Order of the Sun of Peru
- honorary doctor from the NOVA University Lisbon
- honorary doctor of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations
- Honorary doctor of the University of Ottawa
- honorary doctor of the University of Uppsala
- honorary doctorate from Princeton University
- honorary doctorate from the University of Notre Dame
- Knight Grand Cross in the Order of the Netherlands Lion
- Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George
- Medal "In Commemoration of the 850th Anniversary of Moscow"
- Order of Good Hope
- Order of Isabella the Catholic
- Order of Liberty
- Order of Manas, 1st class
- Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
- Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland
- Order of Mono
- Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, 1st class
- Order of Saint Michael and Saint George
- Order of the Companions of O. R. Tambo
- Order of the Golden Heart of Kenya
- Order of the Liberator General San Martín
- Order of the Pioneers of Liberia
- Order of the Star of Ghana
- Order of the Star of Romania
