More countries have understood that women's equality is a prerequisite for development.

We can love what we are, without hating what, and who, we are not.

To build a more healthy, peaceful and equitable world the classrooms of the world have to be full of girls as well as boys.

You are never too young to lead and you should never doubt your capacity to triumph where others have not.

Access to safe water is a fundamental human need and therefore a basic human right.

Human beings are not property. On the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, let us reaffirm the inherent dignity of all men, women and children. And let us redouble our efforts so that the words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - 'no one shall be held in slavery or servitude' - ring true.

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.