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The Nobel Peace Prize 2001
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel
Peace Prize for 2001, in two equal portions, to the United
Nations (U.N.) and to its Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, for
their work for a better organized and more peaceful world.
For one hundred years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought
to strengthen organized cooperation between states. The end
of the cold war has at last made it possible for the U.N.
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
U.N. As Secretary-General, he has been pre-eminent in bringing
new life to the organization. While clearly underlining the
U.N.'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 U.N.'s modest resources.
In an organization that can hardly become more than its members
permit, he has made clear that sovereignty can not be a shield
behind which member states conceal their violations. The U.N.
has in its history achieved many successes, and suffered many
setbacks. Through this first Peace Prize to the U.N. 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.
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