When the history of our times is written, will we be remembered as the generation that turned our backs in a moment of global crisis or will it be recorded that we did the right thing?

As the years progress one increasingly realises the importance of friendship and human solidarity. And if a 90-year-old may offer some unsolicited advice on this occasion, it would be that you, irrespective of your age, should place human solidarity, the concern for the other, at the centre of the values by which you live.

We have laid the foundation for a better life. Things that were unimaginable a few years ago have become everyday reality. I belong to the generation of leaders for whom the achievement of democracy was the defining challenge.

The collapse of good conscience and the absence of accountability and public scrutiny have led to crimes against humanity and violations of international law.

An organisation can only carry out its mandate if there is discipline, and where there is no discipline there can be no real progress

There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere.

The wounds that cannot be seen are more painful than those that can be treated by a doctor.