If we go back in the history of different nations, violence and the use of force are part of their heritage. These are the traditions of mankind.

One of the biggest development issues in the world is the education of girls. In the United States and Europe, it has been accepted, but not in Africa and the developing countries.

Finland had a civil war less than 100 years ago, just like in Ireland. If you look at the history of newly independent nations, civil war is almost every time present, even in the United States.

If there is something I would like to do as President of the General Assembly, it is to place more emphasis on the issue of education, which enables a better life for women.

What we can do as individuals may not be very much on the global scale, but we have to start the change by living as we are teaching.

I really do hope that the Millennium Summit gives new impetus to the work of the United Nations.

That is where consensus-building begins-with the idea that you have your own truth, but that the negotiator on the other side of the table has his own truth as well.