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.
Kofi 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 first term on 1 January 1997. On 29 June 2001, acting
on a recommendation by the Security Council, the General Assembly appointed
him by acclamation to a second term of office, beginning on 1 January 2002
and ending on 31 December 2006.