Global mediations
April 8, 1938 Kofi Annan was born in Kumasi, Ghana, on April 8, 1938. He studied at the University of science and technology in their own country and complete graduate studies in economics at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. From 1961 to 1962 he undertook postgraduate studies in economics at the Institut universitaire des hautes études internationales in Geneva. As Sloan Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (from 1971 to 1972) received a Master's degree in business administration. Married to Nane Annan, a Swedish lawyer and artist with whom he had three children, speaks fluent English, French and several African languages. Enters the United Nations system in 1962 as an administrative and budget officer at the World Health Organization in Geneva. From that moment, he holds different posts at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, in Addis Ababa; the United Nations emergency force (UNEF II) in Ismailia; the Office of the UN High Commissioner for refugees in Geneva; and the UN headquarters in New York as Under Secretary General in the Office of human resources management and Security Coordinator in the United Nations system (1987-1990) and as Under Secretary General for planning, budgeting, finance and controlling (1990-1992). Before being appointed Secretary-general, held the position of Under Secretary General for peacekeeping significantly AIDS (March 1992-February 1993) and then to Assistant Secretary General (March 1993-December 1996). His service as Assistant General Secretary coincided with an unprecedented growth in the size and tasks of United Nations peacekeeping operations, with a total deployment, which reached its peak in 1995, military and civilian staff of nearly 70000 from 77 countries. From November 1995 to March 1996, following the Dayton peace agreement that marked the end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, holds the post of the Secretary-General's Special Representative in the former Yugoslavia, overseeing the transition in Bosnia and Herzegovina from the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) to the multinational force for implementation (IFOR) led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). As Secretary General, the first major initiative by Kofi Annan was his reform program, "renewing the United Nations". In 1990, following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, is sent by the Secretary-General, on a special mission, to facilitate the repatriation of more than 900 people belonging to the international staff and the release of Western citizens in Iraq. Consequently drives the first UN team tasked with negotiating with Iraq the sale of "oil for food" in order to finance the purchase of humanitarian supplies. Kofi Annan has used its good offices in various and delicate political situations, which includes: the attempt in 1998 to obtain from Iraq compliance with UN Security Council resolutions; a mission in 1998 to help promote Nigeria's transition to civilian rule; an agreement in 1999 to resolve a standoff between Libya and the Security Council for the Lockerbie bombing of 1988; diplomatic action in 1999 in order to forge an international response to violence in East Timor; attest to the withdrawal of the Israeli troops from Lebanon in September 2000; and further efforts after the renewed outbreak of violence in September 2000, to encourage Israelis and Palestinians to solve their disputes with negotiation, based on resolutions 242 and 338 of the Security Council and the principle of "land for peace". In April 2000 he released the Millennium Report, entitled "We the peoples: the role of the United Nations in the 21st century", urging Member States to engage in an action plan for tackling poverty and inequality, improve education, reduce HIV/AIDS, protecting the environment and protecting the peoples bloody conflicts and violence. The report forms the basis of the Millennium Declaration adopted by heads of State and Government at the Millennium Summit held in September 2000, at United Nations Headquarters in New York. The December 10, 2001, the Secretary-General and the United Nations received the Nobel Peace Prize. Kofi Annan is the seventh Secretary-general of the United Nations. As the first Secretary-general to be elected from the ranks of United Nations staff, he took office on January 1, 1997. On June 29, 2001, was re-elected by acclamation by the General Assembly, on the recommendation of the Security Council, to a second term, from January 1, 2002 to December 31, 2006. The UN Security Council has appointed as his successor the South Korean Ban Ki-Moon.