kou yi

kou yi

  • Submitted By: LETITIAJY
  • Date Submitted: 09/29/2016 4:55 AM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 664
  • Page: 3

Throughout my term as Secretary-General,I have sought to place human beings at the center of everything we do — from conflict prevention to development to human rights. Securing real and lasting improvement in the lives of individual men and women is the measure of all we do at the United Nations.
It is in this spirit that I humbly accept the Centennial Nobel Peace Prize. Forty years ago today, the Prize for 1961 was awarded for the first time to a Secretary-General of the United Nations posthumously, because Dag Hairanarskjold had already given his life for peace in Central Africa. And on the same day,the Prize for 1960 was awarded for the first time to an African — Albert Luthuli, one of the earliest leaders of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. For me, as a young African beginning his career in the United Nations a few months later, those two men set a standard that I have sought to follow throughout my working life.
This award belongs not just to me. I do not stand here alone. On behalf of all my colleagues in every part of the United Nations, in every corner of the globe, who have devoted their lives 一 and in many instances risked or given their lives in the cause of peace — I thank the Members of the Nobel Committee for this high honor.
My own path to service at the United Nations was made possible by the sacrifice and commitment of my family and many friends from all continents — some of whom have passed away — who taught me and guided me. To them, I offer my most profound gratitude.
In a world filled with weapons of war and all too often words of war, the Nobel Committee has become a vital agent for peace. Sadly, a prize for peace is a rarity in this world. Most nations have monuments or memorials to war, bronze salutations to heroic battles, archways of triumph. But peace has no parade, no pantheon of victory.
What it does have is the Nobel Prize _ a statement of hope and courage with unique resonance and authority. Only by...