‘Selfless model leader’ mourned
WITH the death in the early hours of Saturday of former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, the world has lost yet another “magnanimous and selfless model leader”, Brand South Africa said.
“This weekend, the world woke up to the sad news of the passing of the first African secretary-general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan,” Brand SA said yesterday.
“Headlines report that the 80-yearold advocate for the African continent and seventh secretary-general, who rose through the ranks of the UN, suffered with a short illness before he died.
“The Ghanaian diplomat was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with the UN ‘for their work for a better organised and more peaceful world’.
Annan served as UN secretarygeneral from 1997 to 2006 and put development, human rights, the rule of law, good governance and peace at the top of the UN’s agenda, Brand SA said.
UNITED NATIONS: After Kofi Annan left the UN, it was far more committed to combating poverty, promoting equality and fighting for human rights – and until his death on Saturday, Annan pushed for nations to solve problems together and expressed concern about the rise of nationalism.
As secretary-general of the UN from 1997 to 2006, Annan saw as his greatest achievements the programmes and policies he put in place to reduce inequality within and between countries, to combat infectious diseases and to promote human rights and protect civilians from war crimes, including genocide.
He launched the UN millennium development goals at a summit of world leaders in 2000 to cut extreme poverty by half, promote equality for women, ensure every child has a primary school education, reduce maternal and child mortality, and halt the spread of Aids – all by 2015.
Those goals – only a few of which were achieved – were succeeded by an expanded list of UN sustainable development goals for 2030 that added issues such as climate action, affordable and clean energy, and promoting peace and justice.
As UN peace keeping chief just before becoming secretary-general, Annan shared blame for the failure of UN troops he deployed to prevent the genocides in Rwanda in 1994 and in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in July 1995.
When he became UN chief, Annan launched a doctrine of “humanitarian intervention” to prevent governments and leaders from massacring their own people.
At a summit in 2005, over objections from some countries, 191 nations endorsed what has become known as the “responsibility to protect” civilians and head off the world’s worst crimes, from ethnic cleansing to genocide. This doctrine is frequently cited, but to the dismay of UN officials not often implemented.
Annan also saw as a major achievement the expansion of the UN’s work into partnerships with businesses, foundations, universities and civil society.
This led, for example, to the establishment of the Global Compact in 2001 where Annan asked corporate leaders to publicly commit to 10 principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption. More than 9 000 of the world’s leading chief executives have joined the compact.
When Annan handed the reins of the UN to Ban Ki-moon, Annan said he would keep working on African issues, human rights, global warming and governance issues. He told one farewell party: “You can take the man out of the UN, but you can’t take the UN out of the man.”
At an editorial board meeting with The Associated Press in May 2017, he worried aloud about lost jobs and said many people worldwide had lost trust in political and corporate leaders and feared being left behind.