Kofi Annan’s life experiences that influenced him to work for the UN started when he went to a Methodist Boarding school, he was taught that "suffering anywhere concerns people everywhere." He then went on to study at four different colleges and got a masters degree in International Relations. He got a job with the UN as a budget official, and slowly worked his way up. For 9 years, he was an assistant Secretary General for 3 different organizations. While doing so, the Rwandan Genocide took place, and Annan was highly criticized for the way he handled it. He took responsibility for his actions. This lead to him finally being voted in to be the new Secretary-General, where he stayed for 10 years.
Kofi Annan fought to make the world more equal and safe. Annan and the rest of UN won the Nobel Peace Prize "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world." He wanted to strengthen the UN’s work in specific elements such as development and maintaining international peace and security. He advocated for human rights, equality, human dignity and he aimed to restore public confidence. He wanted to bring the UN closer to the people. Once he retired from the UN, he returned to his homeland of Ghana and got involved with their global focus.
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He promoted the Global Aids and Health Fund and ended up raising around $1.5 Billion. In 2000, he issued a report on the UN and their role discussing the actions needed to end poverty and inequality, improve education, cut HIV/AIDS, protect the environment and also protect the people from violence. Annan took the HIV/AIDS situation into his own hands and considered it his “personal priority”. These were all great successes as they raised an incredible amount of money and
Her memoir starts off in Darfur in 2005, where in her late 20’s, she hits rock bottom while managing a refugee camp for 24,000 civilians. It backtracks to her internship in Rwanda, while moving forward to her challenges in Darfur, in addition to her experiences in post- tsunami Indonesia, and post-quake in Haiti. By sharing her story, Alexander gives readers an opportunity to go behind-the-scenes into the devastations that are censored on media outlets. She stresses that these are often the problems that individuals claim they are educated on, but rarely make it their priority to solve. However, that is not the case for Jessica Alexander as she has over 12 years of experience working with different NGO’s and UN operations. As a result, Alexander earns the credibility to critique the multi-billion-dollar humanitarian aid industry. From her painful yet rewarding work experience, Alexander gives an honest and empathetic view of humanitarian aid as an establishment and a
Genocide is a pressing issue with a multitude of questions and debates surrounding it. It is the opinion of many people that the United Nations should not get involved with or try to stop ongoing genocide because of costs or impositions on the rights of a country, but what about the rights of an individual? The UN should get involved in human rights crimes that may lead to genocide to prevent millions of deaths, save money on humanitarian aid and clean up, and fulfill their responsibilities to stop such crimes. It is preferable to stop genocide before it occurs through diplomacy, but if necessary, military force may be used as a last resort. Navi Pillay, Human Rights High Commissioner, stated, “Concerted efforts by the international community at critical moments in time could prevent the escalation of violence into genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity or ethnic cleansing.”
Many still believe that all the hard times are behind them. Those people believe that since they aren’t the ones having to face those harsh times. However, evil still exists till this day, like the Genocide in Darfur. The subject about Darfur has always been a delicate one to many. However, there are still many in this society that still don’t even have the slightest clue about what is happening over in Sudan. There have been many genocides in the past, and the most well known is the Holocaust, but it’s sad to think that it still goes on till this day. Furthermore, there are still many that haven’t done much about it. Society needs to find out about what is happening in Darfur and awareness needs to be raised as well.
The investigator then goes to South Africa and interviews Dr. Glenda Gray, who works with Dr. Corey. South Africa has the most HIV positive victims in the world, currently. In South Africa, former leaders denied that the HIV virus caused AIDS and did not allow foreign aid to come in to fight the disease. This caused many deaths in South Africa. The whole continent of Africa was ravaged by the epidemic. The significant connection between the transmission of HIV from a pregnant mother to her child is brought up. In 2002, President George W. Bush, in partnership with Bono, started a U.N. Global Initiative to fight the epidemic. However, for the first couple years, the United States was the only country to fund the program. President Bush funded $15 billion, the largest amount of money put up to fight a disease. He started the PEPFAR program (The United States Pre...
The biggest war the world has ever seen was World War II. What was one factor that led to such a quick escalation? Genocide. Over 45 million people were murdered during this tragic time. The question is: was it the allies responsibility to intervene? The answer: No. The Global Community has no responsibility to intervene in states committing genocide.
Gai Nyok rose through the ranks of average Americans to become a diplomat in the State Department. Gai grew up in Abang, a village in South Sudan. At the age of 5 he fled his village and trekked 1000 miles to a refugee camp in Ethiopia where he “was given the opportunity for an education, an experience that would help him see a brighter future,”
Many innocent lives were taken during the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. Philip Gourevitch’s “We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families,” explains why the genocide that occurred in Rwanda should not be written off in history as just another tribal disagreement. This book entails the stories of Gourevitch and the people he interviewed when he went to Rwanda. These stories express what people went through during the genocide, the loss they saw, the mass killings they tried to hide from, and the history of what led to the Rwandan genocide. Rwanda’s colonial past did influence the development of the genocide in Rwanda. The hatred between the Hutus and the Tutsis had been going on for many years before the genocide.
Africa has been an interesting location of conflicts. From the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea to the revolutionary conflict in Libya and Egypt, one of the greatest conflicts is the Rwandan Genocide. The Rwandan Genocide included two tribes in Rwanda: Tutsis and Hutus. Upon revenge, the Hutus massacred many Tutsis and other Hutus that supported the Tutsis. This gruesome war lasted for a 100 days. Up to this date, there have been many devastating effects on Rwanda and the global community. In addition, many people have not had many acknowledgements for the genocide but from this genocide many lessons have been learned around the world.
On September 11, 2001, something bad happened. Nearly 3,000 people were killed. It destroyed the world’s two largest building. 9/11 is also a very important event in U.S. history because it took lots of lives, affected the U.S., and changed lots of people’s lives.
As of March of 2008, a total of 300,000 people have died in Darfur, Sudan due to genocide. That is equivalent to the entire population of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Genocide started back in February of 2003 in Darfur, Sudan. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights defines the liberties set for everyone in the World. Established in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights displays the rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled to. The situation in Darfur, Sudan is known as Genocide, Genocide is defined as a systematic extermination or attempt at exterminating a national, political, racial or cultural group. The Darfur Genocide has violated Article #3, Article #5 and Article #9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Darfur Genocide violates article #3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article #5 has been violated by the Genocide in Darfur. Article #9 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been violated by the Darfur Genocide. Attacks in Darfur are mostly by a group called the Janjaweed which are an Arab based group supported by the Sudanese Government, to carry out attacks on people with different religious, economic and political views. The Darfur Genocide violates the rights of its citizens; steps should be enforced by United Nations and it allies.
1. As far as peace keeping methods go, the reputation of the United Nations is very pitiable. This is not only because they have not been doing their job to it’s fullest extent, but also because the member states on the security council haven’t given the UN the power it needs if it is to be a successful force in peace keeping methods.
Image of Kofi A. Annan With Young Girl. EOP Cultural Trip to New York: United Nations Building, July 19, 2004.
The process of reforming the United Nations (UN) has been a highly debatable issue among the international community. Since the initial signing of the UN Charter in 1945, the world has changed dramatically as the UN is trying to regulate a forum that assesses and deals with global issues while also struggling to unite all 193 member states of the UN when some states have been seen to have conflicting ideas and personal agendas (Teng, 2003, pp. 2-3). This essay is targeted to highlight what I feel are the most pressing arguments for UN reform amongst the international community. This will be done by highlighting the problems and ongoing issues surrounding the lack of representation and P5 power of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), arguing that the UNSC is out of date and controlled egotistically. This essay will also highlight the humanitarian aspect of the UN and the role it plays in meeting and solving complex global problems. This will be done by showing reform propositions in the aforementioned councils in the UN in hopes of showing how reform will be achieved.
In 2015, President Barack Obama addressed the United Nations General Assembly and talked about the significance the United Nations has had since its creation in 1945, claiming: “This institution [U.N.] was founded because men and women who came before us had the foresight to know that our nations are more secure when we uphold basic laws and basic norms, and pursue a path of cooperation over conflict. And strong nations, above all, have a responsibility to uphold this international order.” President Obama argues that the U.N. is the glue which holds the international system together and promotes mutually beneficial outcomes for the world. The fact that an international organization (IO) such as the U.N. has endured for over 70 years is some
Fifty-one countries established the United Nations also known as the UN on October 24, 1945 with the intentions of preserving peace through international cooperation and collective security. Over the years the UN has grown in numbers to include 185 countries, thus making the organization and its family of agencies the largest in an effort to promote world stability. Since 1954 the UN and its organizations have received the Nobel Peace Prize on 5 separate occasions. The first in 1954 awarded to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva, for its assistance to refugees, and finally in 1988 to the United Nations Peace-keeping Forces, for its peace-keeping operations. As you can see, the United Nations efforts have not gone without notice.