António
Manuel de Oliveira Guterres is a Portuguese politician and the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees. After a brief academic career as an assistant
professor, he became involved in politics in 1972, just before the end of the
fascist regime in Portugal. He held a number of political party positions before
he was elected Prime Minister from 1996 to 2002. During his time as Prime Minister,
he helped raise Portugal's profile in the international community; Portugal hosted
the successful Expo'98 and Prime Minister Guterres played a major role in the
international effort to resolve the conflict in East Timor and co-chaired the
first European - African Summit. While Prime Minister, he also served as the President
of the European Council in 2000.
In
1991, António Guterres had founded the Portuguese Refugee Council. Fourteen years
later, he was elected by the United Nations General Assembly as the 10th UN High
Commissioner for Refugees. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is one of the world's
most important humanitarian agencies, providing assistance and protection to more
than 32 million refugees in over 100 countries. As UNHCR's chief, António Guterres
has called for new strategies to tackle 21st Century challenges that are causing
refugee crises, and has helped to bring many of these crises to the attention
of the global community.
