Kofi Annan and the staff of the United Nations – 2003, headquarters in New York, USA

The Sakharov Prize honoured in particular the UN's staff, who work tirelessly for world peace, often under difficult conditions. The prize was awarded in special memory of Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights who, while serving as Kofi Annan's special representative in Iraq, was among those killed in an attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad in 2003.

The United Nations, the only global body of its kind, not only continues to strive to keep or restore peace, protect human rights and establish the framework for international justice, it also deals with new international challenges such as the post-2015 development agenda, the current refugee crisis, international terrorism and climate change. The severe impact of the latter, Kofi Annan warned, could leave 'the living envying the dead'.

In 2001 the UN and Kofi Annan were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Kofi Annan was the seventh UN Secretary-General. A Ghanaian diplomat, he served as Secretary-General from 1997 to 2006 and was the first Secretary-General to emerge from the ranks of the UN staff. He was a constant advocate of human rights, the rule of law, the millennium development goals and Africa, and sought to bring the UN closer to the global public by forging ties with civil society, the private sector and other partners.

In 2005 Kofi Annan presented the UN General Assembly with a report entitled 'In Larger Freedom', in which he outlined his vision for a comprehensive and extensive reform of the UN. Among other measures this resulted in the creation, in March 2006, of a new Human Rights Council to replace the old Commission on Human Rights. The aim was to strengthen the UN's machinery for the promotion and protection of fundamental rights and for dealing with major human rights offenders.

In 2007, after completing two terms as UN Secretary-General, Annan became involved in several organisations focusing on global and African issues, including his own Kofi Annan Foundation. From 2013 to 2018 he was chair of The Elders, a group of independent world leaders convened by Nelson Mandela in 2007, who aim to work together for peace and human rights. In 2012 he was appointed UN-Arab League Joint Special Envoy for Syria, a position he quit after becoming frustrated with the international community's failure to agree on a comprehensive peace plan for Syria. He subsequently chaired the UN's Advisory Commission on Rakhine State.

Kofi Annan died in August 2018 at the age of 80, after a short illness. In a statement after his death, António Guterres, the current UN Secretary-General, described him as 'a guiding force for good'.