KOFI A. ANNAN, UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Release
SG/2031/Rev.2*
BIO/3053/Rev.2*
KOFI A. ANNAN, UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL
19990928 Biographical NoteKofi Annan, of Ghana, is the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations. The first Secretary-General to be elected from the ranks of United Nations staff, he began his term on 1 January 1997.
Mr. Annan's priorities as Secretary-General have been to revitalize the United Nations through a comprehensive programme of reform; to strengthen the Organization's traditional work for peace and development; to encourage and advocate human rights, the rule of law and the universal values of equality, tolerance and human dignity found in the United Nations Charter; and to restore public confidence in the Organization by, in his words, "bringing the United Nations closer to the people".
Mr. Annan was born in Kumasi, Ghana, on 8 April 1938. He studied at the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi and completed his undergraduate work in economics at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.A., in 1961. From 1961 to 1962, he undertook graduate studies in economics at the Institut universitaire des hautes études internationales in Geneva. As a 1971-1972 Sloan Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mr. Annan received a Master of Science degree in management.
Mr. Annan joined the United Nations system in 1962 as an administrative and budget officer with the World Health Organization in Geneva. Since then, he has served with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa; the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF II) in Ismailia; the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva; and, at United Nations Headquarters in New York, as Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources Management and Security Coordinator for the United Nations System (1987-1990), and Assistant Secretary-General for Programme Planning, Budget and Finance, and Controller (1990-1992). In 1990, following the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, Mr. Annan was asked by the Secretary-General, as a special assignment, to facilitate the repatriation of more than 900 international staff and the release of Western hostages in Iraq. He subsequently led the first United Nations team negotiating with Iraq on the sale of oil to fund purchases of humanitarian aid.
Before being appointed Secretary-General, Mr. Annan served as Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations (March 1993-February 1994) and then as Under-Secretary-General (February 1994-October 1995; April 1996- December 1996). His tenure as Under-Secretary-General coincided with unprecedented growth in the size and scope of United Nations peacekeeping
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* This supersedes Press Release SG/2031/Rev.1-BIO/3053/Rev.1, dated 13 June 1997.
- 2 - Press Release SG/2031/Rev.2 BIO/3053/Rev.2 28 September 1999
operations, with a total deployment, at its peak in 1995, of almost 70,000 military and civilian personnel from 77 countries. From November 1995 to March 1996, following the Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Annan served as Special Representative of the Secretary- General to the former Yugoslavia, overseeing the transition in Bosnia and Herzegovina from the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) to the multinational Implementation Force (IFOR) led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
As Secretary-General, Mr. Annan's first major initiative was his plan for reform, "Renewing the United Nations", which was presented to the Member States in July 1997 and has been pursued ever since with an emphasis on improving coherence and coordination. His April 1998 report to the Security Council on "The Causes of Conflict and the Promotion of Durable Peace and Sustainable Development in Africa" was among several efforts to maintain the international community's commitment to Africa, the most disadvantaged of the world's regions. He has used his good offices in several political situations, including an attempt to gain Iraq's compliance with Security Council resolutions, and his missions to help promote the transition to civilian rule in Nigeria, and to resolve a stalemate between Libya and the Security Council over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. He has also sought to improve the status of women in the Secretariat and build closer partnerships with civil society groups, the private sector and other non-State actors whose strengths complement those of the United Nations.
The Secretary-General is fluent in English, French and several African languages. He is married to Nane Annan, of Sweden, a lawyer who is now an artist. They have three children.
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