Four Freedoms Medal: for Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

On 6 January 1941, in the annual message to the United States Congress, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt outlined his idea of four core freedoms that applied to people "everywhere" and "anywhere" in the world. He said: "The first is freedom of speech and expression--everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way--everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want--which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings, which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants--everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear--which, translated into world terms, means a worldwide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor--anywhere in the world."

Every year, the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, founded in 1987, recognizes outstanding individuals who have demonstrated a lifelong commitment to these ideals. This year, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan was awarded the Four Freedoms Medal "for his brilliant leadership of the United Nations, for his courage in sustaining the principles of collective action, and for his moral strength in heeding the voices of the oppressed and the needy". Roosevelt Institute Co-Chairman Ambassador William J. vanden Heuvel presented the award to the Secretary-General--accepted on his behalf by his wife, Mrs. Nane Annan--in recognition of his leadership of the United Nations, the organization President Roosevelt had worked to establish.

In a video message broadcast on 8 May at the venue in the Abbey...