Ban Ki-moon

Malala is a brave and gentle advocate of peace who through the simple act of going to school became a global teacher. She said one pen can change the world - and proved how one young woman can lead the way.

Our world is one of terrible contradictions. Plenty of food but one billion people go hungry. Lavish lifestyles for a few, but poverty for too many others. Huge advances in medicine while mothers die everyday in childbirth . . . Billions spent on weapons to kill people instead of keeping them safe.

Ban Ki-moon (Korean: 반기문, Hanja: 潘基文; born 13 June 1944) was the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Quotes

• Global Classrooms are a cinch, with the help of Merrill Lynch.
  When you put the org in Google, partnerships go truly gloooobal.
  There is hope for Earth's salvation, with the Cisneros Foundation.
  With Jay-Z there's double strife, life for children and water for life.
  Human health will get ahead, with the valiant work of (RED).
  For the poor and doing good, stays the job of Robin Hood.
  UN stays on the front burner, thanks to our champ Ted Turner.
  And whole revolutions stem, from the work of UNIFEM.
  But tonight my special shout-out, goes to one I can't do without.
  We have traveled up and down, Frisco, Atlanta, Chicago town.
  Yes, the king of all the doers, is my trusty friend Bill Luers.

• Ban at the 2008 Global Leadership Awards Gala, held October 1, 2008 by the United Nations Association of the United States of America. It's a "lyric acknowledgment"—inspired by honoree Jay-Z—of the award winners, sung by Ban as a rap.

• Malala is a brave and gentle advocate of peace who through the simple act of going to school became a global teacher. She said one pen can change the world - and proved how one young woman can lead the way.
  • abcnews.go.com

• Our world is one of terrible contradictions. Plenty of food but one billion people go hungry. Lavish lifestyles for a few, but poverty for too many others. Huge advances in medicine while mothers die everyday in childbirth . . . Billions spent on weapons to kill people instead of keeping them safe.
  • October 2011; Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY

• [Conchita Wurst] She is an incredible singer and entertainer. But what made her win so meaningful was the way she turned her victory in the Song Contest into an electrifying moment of human rights education. Conchita is promoting respect for diversity. This is a core value of the United Nations Charter, along with our commitment to tolerance. She confounds people's preconceived ideas of gender and sexuality - and she appeals to them to accept her as she is. That is a powerful message. I am delighted she is using her talent and the Eurovision platform to take this message to a global audience.
  • 3 November 2014; Remarks at Meeting with Conchita Wurst

• When we stand together, there is no limit to what we can achieve.
  Three days ago, young people from many nations stood together in the balcony of this Hall. They asked for one thing above all: change.
  There is nothing we can say to the world’s children that can convince them the world needs to be the way it is.
  That means we must do everything we can to close the gap between the world as it is, and the world as it should be. That is the mission of the United Nations.
  • 28 September 2015; Speech at 70th UN General Assembly