SPEECH

Secretary-General Kofi Annan and other friends of Bella Abzug celebrate the life of the feisty American activist and politician for her extraordinary contribution to women’s rights.

The United Nations celebrates the 1996 Declaration of World Thanksgiving, marking the first time every country in the General Assembly unanimously voted in support of a spiritual idea.

"We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike." American poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou recites a poem during the gathering for the United Nations Development Fund for Women's Achievement Awards.

For the United Nations' 50th birthday, Pope John Paul II praises the quest for freedom as one of the distinguished marks of the time and as a universal human right the UN has to defend.

Secretary-General Boutros Boutros Ghali gives a special toast to Nelson Mandela, newly elected president of South Africa. Mandela follows with his own toast to the UN.

Severn Cullis-Suzuki, delivers her famous speech at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED).

ANC leader Nelson Mandela addresses the General Assembly about his fight against the Apartheid regime in South Africa, four years before being elected President.

Peacekeeping Forces are a living demonstration of “the will to peace”, says Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar in this celebration of Nobel Peace Prize to the UN.

Nobel Peace Prize Archbishop Desmond Tutu denounces the Apartheid regime in South Africa in this speech before the Special Political Committee.

Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar is awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Paris II, where he studied in his youth.