Antonio Guterres

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the East Timorese politician, see António Guterres (KHUNTO) .

António Guterres, 2019

António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres ([ ɐ̃ˈtɔnju ɡuˈtɛʁɨʃ ], voice output ^{? / I} , born April 30, 1949 in Santos-o-Velho , Lisbon ) is a Portuguese politician and since January 1, 2017 the ninth Secretary General of the United Nations . From 1992 to 2002 he was General Secretary of the Partido Socialista (PS), from 1995 to 2002 Prime Minister of Portugal and from 1999 to 2005 President of the Socialist International . After that, Guterres was from 2005 to 2015 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees .

biography

António Guterres, 2003

training

Guterres graduated from the Technical University of Lisbon with a diploma in electrical power engineering in 1971 .

Political career

From 1976 Guterres was a member of the Portuguese Parliament . At times he was in charge of the parliamentary committee for economy, finance and planning and later the committee for territorial administration, municipalities and the environment. From 1981 to 1983 he was also a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe , where he was elected chairman of the Committee on Demography , Migration and Refugees. In 1992 he was elected General Secretary of the Portuguese PS , he held the office until 2002.

From October 28, 1995 to April 6, 2002, he was Prime Minister of Portugal's 13th and 14th governments .

In addition, Guterres was President of the Socialist International from November 9, 1999 to June 15, 2005 .

UN refugee commissioner

Guterres in his role as refugee commissioner , 2012

From June 2005 to 2015 was Guterres UN - Commissioner for Refugees . During his tenure, he advocated deep structural reform of the UNHCR and a 20 percent cut in staff at its headquarters in Geneva . UNHCR's activity tripled during his tenure in office after needs-based budgeting was introduced and the number of people fleeing conflict and persecution increased from 38 million in 2005 to over 60 million in 2015. Guterres' tenure was marked by some of the biggest refugee crises , especially conflicts in Syria and Iraq , but also in the Central African Republic or in Yemen and the crises in South Sudan . In 2015 he was awarded the German Sustainability Prize for his commitment . He was succeeded by Filippo Grandi .

UN Secretary General

Guterres during the 54th Munich Security Conference 2018

António Guterres was a candidate to succeed UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon , whose term of office ended at the end of 2016. On October 5, 2016, the UN Security Council unanimously nominated Guterres for election as Secretary General. According to the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, the process of candidate selection in the Security Council proceeded remarkably in great unity , despite the current international tensions between Russia and the United States regarding the civil war in Syria .

The General Assembly of the United Nations elected him by acclamation on October 13, 2016 . Guterres took the oath of office on December 12, 2016, before officially succeeding Ban Ki-moons on January 1, 2017.

In his New Year's message for 2019, Guterres emphasized that the world was currently going through a "stress test". Progressive climate change, conflicts, record migration, inequality, intolerance and decreasing trust are among the major problems. The peace talks for Yemen and the progress between the warring countries Ethiopia and Eritrea, new signs of peace in South Sudan, the adoption of the migration and refugee pact and the COP24 climate summit offer reasons for hope. On January 29, 2019, it was announced that he would receive the Aachen Charlemagne Prize on Ascension Day (May 30) .

On the occasion of the publication of the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction 2019 , he said that if he had to describe the state of the world in one sentence, he would say that we now live in a world in which global challenges are increasingly integrated and our responses are increasingly fragmented, and if this cannot be reversed, catastrophe is inevitable.

On December 18, 2020, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the United Nations (UN), he gave a speech in German in the German Bundestag. He demanded, inter alia. In the presence of the Federal President and the Federal Chancellor, Germany also praised more ambitious climate goals and more support for developing countries as a “peace power” and “pillar of multilateralism”.

Guterres stated on January 11, 2021 that he would be available for a possible second term from January 2022. On June 18, 2021, he was appointed by the UN General Assembly - unopposed and with the support of the Security Council - for a second term until the end of 2026.

Personal

Guterres is a member of Club de Madrid , a leading alliance of democratic ex-presidents and prime ministers from around the world. In addition to his mother tongue, Guterres speaks fluent English, French and Spanish and has a relatively good command of German.

After the death of his first wife (1998), the Catholic António Guterres has been married to Catarina Marques de Almeida Vaz Pinto (* 1960), a lawyer and former cultural representative of the Lisbon City Council, since April 2001 . He has two children, Pedro Guimarães e Melo de Oliveira Guterres (* 1977) and Mariana Guimarães e Melo Guterres (* 1985), from his first marriage to the child psychiatrist Luísa Amelia Guimarães e Melo (* 1946; † 1998 in London).

Fonts

• Sustainable Development Goals: From Promise to Practice. Witan Media, 2017, ISBN 978-0-9929-2239-9 .
• A pension in Portugal. Editorial Presença , 1999, ISBN 978-9-7223-2549-3 .

Web links

Commons : António Guterres  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Information on Guterres on the German-language website of the UNHCR

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Biography of António Guterres ( memento of October 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). antonioguterres.gov.pt. Accessed September 15, 2016 (English)
2. ↑ German Sustainability Award ( Memento from October 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ Successor to Ban Ki Moon: These politicians want to be at the top of the UN. In: Spiegel Online . April 10, 2016, accessed October 13, 2016 . 
4. ↑ António Guterres - Candidate for the position of Secretary-General of the United Nations ( Memento of January 6, 2017 in the Internet Archive ). antonioguterres.gov.pt. Accessed September 15, 2016 (English)
5. ↑ António Guterres is to become the new UN Secretary General. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung (online). October 5, 2016. Retrieved October 5, 2016 . 
6. ↑ Portugal's Antonio Guterres set to be UN secretary general. BBC News, October 5, 2016, accessed October 5, 2016 . 
7. ^ António Guterres appointed next UN Secretary-General by acclamation. In: United Nations News Center. October 13, 2016, accessed October 13, 2016 . 
8. ↑ Guterres sworn in as UN chief. Tages-Anzeiger , December 12, 2016, accessed January 1, 2017 . 
9. ↑ news.ORF.at. Retrieved December 29, 2018 . 
10. ↑ Global platform on disaster risk reduction: we need a drastic change of course. In: Press release No. 17052019. World Meteorological Organization , May 17, 2019, accessed on May 23, 2019 (English): “If I had to select one sentence to describe the state of the world, I would say we are in a world in which global challenges are more and more integrated, and the responses are more and more fragmented, and if this is not reversed, it's a recipe for disaster " 
11. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung: Guterres honors Germany as a "peace power". Retrieved December 18, 2020 . 
12. ↑ Guterres: Vaccines must be accessible and affordable for everyone. German Bundestag, accessed December 20, 2020 . 
13. ↑ Fredy Gsteiger: Second term of office - Well then: UN Secretary-General Guterres wants to continue. In: srf.ch . January 18, 2021, accessed January 18, 2021 . 
14. ↑ Second term of office: António Guterres remains UN Secretary General until 2026. In: FAZ.net. June 18, 2021, accessed June 18, 2021 . 
15. ^ Catarina Vaz Pinto (Lisbon Municipality) . lisbonconsortium.com. Accessed September 15, 2016 (English).
16. ↑ CATARINA VAZ PINTO E ANTÓNIO GUTERRES . caras.sapo.pt. Dated August 3, 2009 (Portuguese).

predecessor	Office	successor
Aníbal Cavaco Silva	Prime Minister of Portugal 1995–2002	José Manuel Barroso