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... Kofi Annan is a very special citizen of the world community, and someone whose leadership is deeply regarded, highly respected by all Americans and certainly by the Profile in Courage Committee.

At the extraordinary times in the past months and past years he has provided leadership for that agency and stood for the kind of values that President Kennedy believed in very deeply, most particularly at the time of September 11th he galvanized the international community in the worldwide support in fighting terrorism. In more recent times, galvanizing the world's community to understand its humanitarian responsibilities to help and assist the needy peoples in Afghanistan.

He was willing to personally challenge the world community and awaken the world community to the pandemic that was taking place in Africa, in the challenge of the global AIDS crisis, and now the world is gradually responding. He has been willing to take on sovereign nations in his pursuit of the issues of human rights and he has placed those issues onto the forefront of the UN agenda and now returns to the United Nations this morning where they will focus on the challenge for children within the world community, to awaken the nations of the world to our responsibilities in terms of the youngest and the most vulnerable in our country.

He understands that the process of peace, as President Kennedy did, is really a step-by-step process. President Kennedy said that, when he spoke at the Berlin Wall, "none of us is free unless all of us is free", and in a very important way and in small ways and in large ways he has been willing to risk his position as a leader at the United Nations to move the process forward for a real genuine and lasting peace, so we are indeed honoured to both of them [Mayor Koldenhoven] and know they will be pleased to respond to any of the questions from the Boston media.

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SG [in answer to a question addressed to Mayor Koldenhoven about not being successful in building a mosque he had been helping his community fight for, and how he felt about getting the award for something that did not happen]:

If I may add, I am curious as to the way you define success, that because the mosque was not built, our friend was not successful, but he was successful in the sense that he helped them assert their rights, that they are citizens, they could build if they wanted to and really pushed it. If they had chosen to build and they had chosen not to go elsewhere you would have said it was successful, but in fact, asserting the rights of the individual and upholding the Constitution the way he did I think was successful.

Q: Mr. Secretary-General, can you describe for us just some of the feelings you have about coming to accept the award that you will be receiving?

SG: It's a very special feeling I have. Last night at the dinner I shared with those at the dinner how moved I was when I first heard President Kennedy make his inaugural address and as a young student here in this country I happened to be in the Coliseum in Los Angeles when he got the nomination and therefore followed his career, and as someone who had just come through the colonial struggle in Africa, to hear him challenge us to do things for our country, not to ask what our country can do for us, but what we can do for them. And the possibility he opened up, that change was possible, change can be done, and for me it was reaffirmation of what I had gone through as a teenager, growing up in Africa, watching my country become independent, and feeling that change was possible, one can make things happen, and all was possible. And so there was a very special sort of relationship, and I told the guests last night that I was sure that those of us old enough to remember can recite in detail where we were and what were were doing when we got the news [of his death]. I was a young man working in Geneva, Switzerland, when the news came. And so he is somebody who has been an inspiration and a role model all my life.

Q: Did you ever meet him?

SG: No I never met him.

Q: How far back does your relationship with the Senator or any of the Kennedy family members go?

SG: Oh, quite a few decades we have known each other. And I see him often in Washington too, and Sarge [Shriver]

TK: We go back a long way. I think I was mentioning that Sarge Shriver was over in Ghana as one of the first peace corps countries. I don't know; I think Sarge remembers meeting you over there [laughter] I don't know if you remember meeting Sarge!

Q: Mr. Secretary-General, you are receiving this Award in part for your actions after September 11th, in the war on terrorism. Right now the situation in the Middle East seems readymade for, let's say, next year's Profile in Courage Award winner - somebody to step up and do the right thing that might now be popular. People are looking for that person but it doesn't seem we have found them yet. Your thoughts on who is needed at this time?

SG: I think we have a group of people who are working with Washington, with President Bush. President Bush and the United States is the mediator of choice of the parties, but this is a major crisis and I think the international community is coming together as it has never done before in recent times, to work together on this tragedy in the Middle East, and you have recently heard people talk about the "Quartet", which is the United States, the European Union, the Russian Federation and myself, working together to try and bring peace to that region. Of course we would have to work with the parties and the Arab leaders, and now there is discussion going on in preparation for a Conference in early summer. I hope this teamwork will produce results, but let me say that the inspiration for viable peace has to spring from the leaders and the people in the region. The international community can help, but the leaders have to lead their people away from the disastrous course they are on, and move into the logic of peace, away from the logic of war, and I think the international community as I have described should help them do that.

Q: Mr. Secretary-General, it seems to me that you have also worked to make this a more equitable world. I know it's a tough challenge, but where are we? And how far do we have to go?

SG: I was very encouraged on that front when in the year 2000 we had 150 heads of states and government and princes come to the UN to talk about what the UN should be doing in the next 15 years of this century. One of the top issues they focussed on was AIDS. AIDS and poverty. They have challenged us to reduce abject poverty by 50 per cent between now and 2015. I believe the resources are there. We have the means, we have the technology - the question is will.

What encourages me is that we came up with Millennium Development Goals, which all the international agencies and governments have embraced, so today we have a common framework for development, and I think if we really work together and maintain this onslaught on poverty, we should be able to help the millions of people who live in abject poverty, who are marginalized, we cannot expect a world that has some people living with immense wealth and extreme poverty and no one seems to bother. It cannot be sustained. We need to do something about this inequity, within states and between states - I think that is the challenge of our time - but what I am happy about is that the leaders have accepted it as a challenge and they want to work to fight it.

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Q: Mr. Secretary-General, where do you find your courage, day in and day out?

SG: I think the best way I can answer that question is to say that, first of all, I believe in what I am doing and the ideals of the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I also believe that I am in a fortunate situation that, as Secretary-General, I should be able to speak for those without a voice - the poor, the weak, and I know that they need to hear some of the things I say. I am also encouraged sometimes, when you travel around the world and you notice that you or the UN has made a difference in one persons' life, or to hear people quote what you say and not go to jail. If they say it directly they will go to jail, but if they refer to, [or say] "as the Secretary-General said", they are okay, they are quoting somebody else, and so in many ways you give them a voice, you encourage them, and I think that cheers me on to see the hope in the eyes - to give people hope is something that drives me.