If the United Nations does not attempt to chart a course for the world's people in the first decades of the new millennium, who will?

Generals often find a way of dealing with generals on the officer-to-officer level. In the hierarchy of the military and with the almost similar structure and similar language, they find a way of dealing with each other.

Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.

If tolerance, respect and equity permeate family life, they will translate into values that shape societies, nations and the world.

On this International Day of Peace, let us all honor those who have suffered from violence. Let us hold in our hearts the ideal of peace.

Some have suggested that ideally there must be some international body that would treat areas like the Arctic as a global commerce, a bit like the way we treat the sea. It doesn't belong to any particular country, but to all of us, but I'm not sure some of the powerful are ready for that sort of solution.

It is my aspiration that health finally will be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for.