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Note to Correspondents |
Note No 162 |
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NOBEL PEACE PRIZE 2001 AWARDED TO THE UNITED NATIONS VIENNA, 12 October (UN Information Service) -- The following is the text of the press release issued today by the Norwegian Nobel Committee: The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2001, in two equal portions, to the United Nations (UN) 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 UN 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. As Secretary-General, he has been pre-eminent 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. 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 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. * *** * |
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