Under international law, the responsibility for protecting civilians in conflict falls on the belligerents. Under military occupation, responsibility for the welfare of the population falls on the occupiers.

A United Nations that will not stand up for human rights is a United Nations that cannot stand up for itself.

Most people forget that even in Iraq, by the time the air and no-fly zone was established, the air defence system had been removed through the first Gulf war. All of them had been neutralised.

HIV/AIDS has become much more than a health issue. HIV/AIDS is a development issue, it's a security issue.

To live is to choose.

People of different religions and cultures live side by side in almost every part of the world, and most of us have overlapping identities which unite us with very different groups. We can love what we are, without hating what – and who – we are not. We can thrive in our own tradition, even as we learn from others, and come to respect their teachings.

If we are to make poverty history, we must have the active participation of States, civil society and the private sector, as well as individual volunteers.