[26][27] On 29 August 1995, while Boutros-Ghali was unreachable on an aeroplane, Annan instructed United Nations officials to "relinquish for a limited period of time their authority to veto air strikes in Bosnia".

[29][30] In 2003, retired Canadian general Roméo Dallaire, who was force commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), claimed that Annan was overly passive in his response to the imminent genocide.

In his book Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda (2003), Dallaire asserted that Annan held back UN troops from intervening to settle the conflict and from providing more logistical and material support.

Annan explained that the events in Somalia and the collapse of the UNOSOM II mission fostered a hesitation among UN member states to approve robust peacekeeping operations.

[44][45] In March 2000, Annan appointed the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations[46] to assess the shortcomings of the then existing system and to make specific and realistic recommendations for change.

[48] In a letter transmitting the report to the General Assembly and Security Council, Annan stated that the Panel's recommendations were essential to making the United Nations truly credible as a force for peace.

It made suggestions on its configuration and implementation strategy, including that ICT4D volunteering opportunities make mobilising "national human resources" (local ICT experts) within developing countries a priority for both men and women.

Stating it was a "personal priority", Annan proposed the establishment of a Global AIDS and Health Fund, "dedicated to the battle against HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases",[59] to stimulate the increased international spending needed to help developing countries confront the HIV/AIDS crisis.

As a result, the UN and its member states had to consider a willingness to act to prevent conflict and civilian suffering,[63] a dilemma between "two concepts of sovereignty" that Annan also presented in a preceding article in The Economist on 16 September 1999.

[78] In June 2004, Annan was given a copy of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) report on the complaint brought by four female workers against Ruud Lubbers, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, for sexual harassment, abuse of authority, and retaliation.

The investigation found Lubbers guilty of sexual harassment; no mention was made publicly of the other charge against a senior official or two subsequent complaints filed later that year.

[81] In December 2004, reports surfaced that the Secretary-General's son Kojo Annan received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna Inspection SA, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Programme.

[83] Annan appointed the Independent Inquiry Committee,[84] which was led by former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker,[85] then the director of the United Nations Association of the US.

In a final report issued on 27 October, the committee found insufficient evidence to indict Annan on any illegal actions but did find fault with Benon Sevan, an Armenian-Cypriot national who had worked for the UN for about 40 years.

Appointed by Annan to the Oil-For-Food role, Sevan repeatedly asked Iraqis for allocations of oil to the African Middle East Petroleum Company.

[88] Annan defended his deputy secretary-general Mark Malloch Brown,[89] who openly criticised the United States in a speech on 6 June 2006: "[T]he prevailing practice of seeking to use the UN almost by stealth as a diplomatic tool while failing to stand up for it against its domestic critics is simply not sustainable.

[...] [That] the US is constructively engaged with the UN [...] is not well known or understood, in part because much of the public discourse that reaches the US heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.

[91] The interim US ambassador John Bolton, appointed by President George W. Bush, was reported to have told Annan on the phone: "I've known you since 1989 and I'm telling you this is the worst mistake by a senior UN official that I have seen in that entire time.

[99] The Foundation works mainly through private diplomacy, with Annan providing informal counsel and participating in discreet diplomatic initiatives to avert or resolve crises.

[101] Annan was appointed as chair of the panel, to lead it with Benjamin Mkapa, former president of Tanzania; and humanitarian Graça Machel, the former first lady of Mozambique and South Africa.

[103][104] On 23 February 2012, Annan was appointed as the UN and Arab League joint special envoy to Syria in an attempt to end the civil war taking place.

[107] Annan also stated that the lack of international unity and ineffective diplomacy among world leaders had made the peaceful resolution in Syria an impossible task.

Some of the international representatives resigned – notably the panel's secretary, Thailand's former foreign minister Surakiart Sathirathai, and former US ambassador to the UN Bill Richardson – decrying the "implementation" committee as ineffective, or a "whitewash".

[112][123] In March 2011,[124] Annan became a member of the advisory board for Investcorp Bank B. S. C.[125] Europe,[126] an international private equity firm and sovereign wealth fund owned by the United Arab Emirates.

[141][142] In November 2008, Annan and fellow elders Jimmy Carter and Graça Machel attempted to travel to Zimbabwe to make a first-hand assessment of the humanitarian situation in the country.

Refused entry, the Elders instead carried out their assessment from Johannesburg, where they met Zimbabwe- and South Africa-based leaders from politics, business, international organisations, and civil society.

[143] In May 2011, following months of political violence in Côte d'Ivoire, Annan travelled to the country with elders Desmond Tutu and Mary Robinson to encourage national reconciliation.

During a session with fellow elder Mary Robinson, Annan encouraged 1,300 young leaders from 191 countries to lead on intergenerational issues such as climate change and the need for action to take place now, not tomorrow:[145][146] We don't have to wait to act.

As chair, he facilitated coalition building to leverage and broker knowledge, in addition to convening decision-makers to influence policy and create lasting change in Africa.[promotion?]

[165] The ceremony was attended by several political leaders from across Africa as well as Ghanaian traditional rulers, European royalty and dignitaries from the international community, including the UN secretary-general António Guterres.