The High Commissioner
UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres
António Guterres became the 10th UN High Commissioner for Refugees on June 15, 2005. A former Portuguese prime minister, Guterres was elected by the UN General Assembly to a five-year term. In April 2010, the General Assembly re-elected Guterres to a second five-year term.
As High Commissioner, he heads one of the world's foremost humanitarian organizations. UNHCR has twice won the Nobel Peace Prize. Its more than 6,800 staff members work in more than 120 countries providing protection and assistance to millions of refugees, returnees, internally displaced people and stateless persons. More than 85 per cent of its staff work in the field, often in difficult and dangerous duty stations. UNHCR's needs-based budget for 2010 is just over US$3 billion.
Before joining UNHCR, Guterres spent more than 20 years in government and public service. He served as Portuguese prime minister from 1995 to 2002, during which time he was heavily involved in the international effort to resolve the crisis in East Timor. As president of the European Council in early 2000, he led the adoption of the so-called Lisbon Agenda and co-chaired the first European Union-Africa summit. He also founded the Portuguese Refugee Council in 1991 and was part of the Council of State of Portugal from 1991 to 2002.
From 1981 to 1983, Guterres was a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, as well as chairman of the Committee on Demography, Migration and Refugees. In addition, he has been active in Socialist International, a worldwide organization of social democratic political parties. He was the group's vice-president from 1992 to 1999 and president from 1999 until mid-2005.
Guterres was born on April 30, 1949, in Lisbon and educated at the Instituto Superior Técnico, where he remains a visiting professor.
He is married and has two children.
High Commissioner Guterres in the News
- Guterres calls for 'proportionate' international aid to DRC's Equateur province
- High Commissioner Guterres to visit DRC, Uganda, with WFP chief
- UNHCR chief Guterres to assess emergency operations in Kyrgyzstan
- UNHCR chief stresses need to improve refugee conditions in Lebanon
- UNHCR chief visits emergency transit centre in Romania
Speeches by António Guterres
- Remarks of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres at the Informal Meeting of EU Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs, Brussels, 15 July 2010
- Forced Displacement: Responding to the Challenge of the Next Decade. Statement to the Berlin Symposium for Refugee Protection by António Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Berlin, Germany, 15 June 2010
- UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres: Remarks at the European Parliament, 28 April 2010 - Informal transcript of remarks
- Statement by Mr. António Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, to the Georgetown Law School Conference on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Refugee Act of 1980, Washington DC, 16 March 2010
- End of Year Message from the High Commissioner, 30 December 2009