UN 3 Minute Compilation	2001 Nobel Peace Prize Winners	Secretary-General's Nobel Prize Acceptance

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for 2001 jointly to the United Nations and to its Secretary-General, Kofi Annan.

Citing their work for a better organized and more peaceful world, the Committee noted that the end of the cold war had at last made it possible for the United Nations to perform more fully the part it was originally intended to play. "Today the organization is at the forefront of efforts to achieve peace and security in the world, and of the international mobilization aimed at meeting the world's economic, social and environmental challenges."

"Kofi Annan has devoted almost his entire working life to the UN", the Committee states in its press release announcing the award. "As Secretary-General, he has been preeminent in bringing new life to the Organization. While clearly underlining the UN's traditional responsibility for peace and security, he has also emphasized its obligations with regard to human rights."

"He has risen to such new challenges as HIV/AIDS and international terrorism, and brought about more efficient utilization of the UN's modest resources" the Committee goes on to say. In an organization that can hardly become more than its members permit, he has made clear that sovereignty cannot be a shield behind which member states conceal their violations.

"The UN has in its history achieved many successes, and suffered many setbacks. Through this first Peace Prize to the UN as such, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes in its centenary year to proclaim that the only negotiable route to global peace and cooperation goes by way of the United Nations."

 

 

© UN, 2001. Prepared by the Department of Public Information / News and Media Division.