Kofi Annan's legacy as UN secretary-general

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Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was given a state funeral and burial in his birthplace Ghana on September 13.

Last month, the former UN chief died at the age of 80 in Switzerland after a short illness. Tributes have been pouring in from world leaders and politicians mourning Annan's passing.

Annan dedicates his life to world peace, combating poverty, and ensuring human rights were protected.

However, Kofi Annan also had his own regrets during his tenure as UN secretary-general – he used to say his biggest failure was his inability to prevent the Iraq War.

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The role of leading the United Nations is an extremely challenging one, with one of the major obstacles being able to work with the UN Security Council, said Victor Gao Zhikai, Vice President of the Center for China and Globalization.

The role demands being able to navigate closely among the permanent five members of UN Security Council while consulting with all the members of UN General Assembly at the same time. "In many cases, it's a mission impossible," said Gao.

The institution itself was a very different place when Annan lead the organization, said Einar Tangen, a current affairs commentator. And for Tangen, the changes that Annan was able to make is being unraveled by state of the organization today.

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"We are seeing the unraveling of the United Nations. It is in danger of becoming a talk shop, simply because the people at the top of it are no longer interested in talking."

China Director of Development Reimagined Zahra R. Baitie believed that Annan personally did his best in criticizing human rights abuses when fighting against terrorism.

She also pointed out that protecting human rights is the core of the UN.

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"There was a clearer recognition that failure to ensure the human rights of people could result in sorts of atrocity we saw during the WWII, the Holocaust, and later on it started to repeat itself again and again with Rwanda and Srebrenica, even more recently in Syria."

"I think the UN increasingly, as we realized that this conflict is not going away, does need to work harder towards effectively addressing human rights abuses when they occur, also to ensure that the permanent members of UNSC – the US, UK, for example, in their efforts to counter terrorism."

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