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Question 34 of 52 · Famous Personalities & Founders
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Who was the Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006?

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Answer: Option B — Kofi Annan

Detailed Solution

Kofi Annan of Ghana was the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, serving two terms from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006.

About Kofi Annan (1938-2018):

  • He was born on 8 April 1938 in Kumasi, Ghana (then the Gold Coast).
  • He was the first Secretary-General from sub-Saharan Africa and the first to be chosen from among the UN's own staff; he had worked in the UN system since 1962.
  • Before becoming Secretary-General, he headed UN peacekeeping operations (1993-1996), a period that included the Rwandan genocide and the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia.

As Secretary-General:

  • He launched the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000, with targets for 2015 to reduce poverty, hunger and disease.
  • He helped set up the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (2002).
  • He supported the creation of the UN Human Rights Council (2006) and the principle of the "Responsibility to Protect".
  • He opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, calling it illegal under the UN Charter.
  • In 2001, Kofi Annan and the United Nations jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world".
  • After leaving office, he founded the Kofi Annan Foundation and was UN-Arab League Special Envoy for Syria (2012).
  • He died on 18 August 2018 in Bern, Switzerland.

List of UN Secretaries-General:

  • Trygve Lie (Norway), 1946-1952.
  • Dag Hammarskjöld (Sweden), 1953-1961; posthumous Nobel Peace Prize.
  • U Thant (Burma), 1961-1971.
  • Kurt Waldheim (Austria), 1972-1981.
  • Javier Pérez de Cuéllar (Peru), 1982-1991.
  • Boutros Boutros-Ghali (Egypt), 1992-1996.
  • Kofi Annan (Ghana), 1997-2006.
  • Ban Ki-moon (South Korea), 2007-2016.
  • António Guterres (Portugal), since 2017.

Why not the other options?

  • ✗Boutros Boutros-Ghali served from 1992 to 1996.
  • ✗Ban Ki-moon served from 2007 to 2016.
  • ✗Javier Pérez de Cuéllar served from 1982 to 1991.

Quick tip

Remember: Kofi Annan (Ghana) = UN Secretary-General 1997-2006 (7th; Nobel Peace 2001 with the UN; Millennium Development Goals); before him Boutros-Ghali; after him Ban Ki-moon; now Guterres.

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Famous Personalities & Founders — Preparation

This question tests your understanding of Famous Personalities & Founders, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.

This topic covers famous personalities from India and the world: leaders, reformers, scientists, entrepreneurs and their nicknames, along with the founders of organisations, companies, institutions, religions and movements. Questions often use popular titles such as 'Iron Man of India' (Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel) or 'Nightingale of India' (Sarojini Naidu), or ask who founded an organisation, such as the Ramakrishna Mission (Swami Vivekananda). Grouping people by field and by title makes revision faster and helps you spot wrong options. Practise the famous personalities questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.

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