António Guterres

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant%C3%B3nio_Guterres

António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres, born 30 April 1949, is a Portuguese former politician who was Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002. He also served for a time as President of the Socialist International. He served as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from June 2005 to December 2015. In October 2016 the United Nations Security Council announced he will be the next United Nations Secretary General.

Early life

António Guterres was born and raised in Portugal's capital, Lisbon, son of Virgílio Dias Guterres (1913-2009) and his wife Ilda Cândida de Oliveira (born 1923). He studied physics and electrical engineering at IST. He graduated in 1971 and started an academic career as assistant professor.

Political career

His political career started in 1974, when he joined the Socialist Party. Shortly thereafter, he quit academic life and became a full-time politician. In the period following the Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974, which put an end to Caetano's dictatorship, Guterres was closely involved in the organization of the Socialist Party, especially the Lisbon section. Guterres became one of the party leaders and held the following offices:

• Head of Office of the Secretary of State of Industry (1974 and 1975)
• Deputy for Lisbon, and later Castelo Branco in the Portuguese National Parliament (1976–1995), during which he was responsible for several parliamentary commissions
• Leader of the parliamentary bench of the Socialist Party, succeeding Jorge Sampaio (1988)

In 1992, he became Secretary-General of the Socialist Party and leader of the opposition against Aníbal Cavaco Silva's government. He was also nominated as vice-president of the Socialist International in September 1992.

Following the retirement of Cavaco Silva in 1995, the Socialist Party won the general election and Guterres became Prime Minister of Portugal. With a style markedly different from that of his predecessor, based on dialogue and discussion with all sections of society, Guterres was a popular prime minister in the first years of his government. Portugal was enjoying a solid economic expansion which allowed the Socialists to reduce budget deficits while increasing welfare spending and creating new conditional cash transfer programes. Also important was the successful staging of Expo 98, in Lisbon, which increased Portugal's visibility in the world.

Guterres was re-elected in 1999, and from January to July 2000, he occupied the Presidency of the European Council. This second term in government was not as successful however. Internal party conflicts along with a slowdown of the economic growth and the Hintze Ribeiro Bridge disaster damaged his authority and popularity.

In December 2001, following a disastrous result for the Socialist Party in the local elections, Guterres resigned, stating that "I am resigning to prevent the country from falling into a political swamp". President Jorge Sampaio dissolved the Parliament and called for elections. Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, until then Minister for Social Security, assumed the Socialist Party leadership, but the general election was lost to the Social Democratic Party of José Manuel Durão Barroso, who later became President of the European Commission. Guterres retired from Portuguese politics and worked as President of the Socialist International until 2005.

Guterres is a member of the Club of Madrid, an independent non-profit organization composed of democratic former Presidents and Prime Ministers from 57 different countries, and which works to strengthen democratic institutions and leadership.

Guterres is set to become the next United Nations secretary-general, after the 15 Security Council members agreed to put his name forward to a formal vote.

High Commissioner for Refugees

In May 2005 Guterres was elected High Commissioner for Refugees by the UN General Assembly. As High Commissioner, he heads one of the world's largest humanitarian organizations with more than 9,000 staff working in 123 countries providing protection and assistance to over 46 million refugees, returnees, internally displaced people and stateless persons. Some 88 per cent of UNHCR staff work in the field. The organization's 2015 budget is over US$ 6.8 billion.

In a February 2007 NPR interview devoted mainly to the plight of Iraqi refugees, he said that this was one of the greatest refugee crisis in the Middle East since 1948. Among poorly publicized refugee crises, he cited those in the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. More recently, he has been working to secure international aid for the refugees of the Syrian civil war, calling the refugee crisis an "existential" one for host countries (such as Lebanon and Jordan), and describing additional aid as a "matter of survival" for the refugees. He left office on 31 December 2015.

United Nations Secretary-General selection

On 29 February 2016, Guterres submitted his nomination as Portugal's candidate for the 2016 UN Secretary-General selection.

The UN's role in the Haiti cholera outbreak has been widely discussed and criticized after Ban ki-moon administration denied the issue for several months. According to the Boston-based Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, the UN is the proximate cause for bringing cholera to Haiti. Peacekeepers sent to Haiti from Nepal were carrying asymptomatic cholera and they did not treat their waste properly before dumping it into Haiti's water stream. During his UNSG informal dialogue, Jamaica, on behalf of the Caribbean Community, asked if the UN should assume liability for any deaths within local populations that result from the introduction of infectious disease by its peacekeepers. Jamaica also asked if Guterres believes compensation should be provided. Gueterres responded by calling the situation a "particularly complex question." He says that it is difficult to preserve diplomatic immunity while also ensuring there is no impunity, but that he would "pay a lot of attention in trying to find the right equilibrium between these two aspects that are absolutely crucial."

Another issue that has been brought up is the sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers. This gross problem was brought to light after Anders Kompass exposed the sexual assault of children by peacekeepers in the Central African Republic and, as a consequence, dismissed by Ban Ki-moon administration before being rehabilitated in court. During the United Nations Secretary General Candidate informal dialogues, Guterres indicated it was completely unacceptable that there be UN forces committing human rights violations such as rape and sexual violence. "All of us together—states and UN—must do our utmost to ensure that any kind of action of this type is severely punished," remarked Guterres. The United States raised the question of international tribunals to try peacekeepers for their crimes. Guterres responded by saying an independent jurisdiction would be excellent but that "the only way to get there is through a new compact with all key parties true contributors, financial contributors, and to make sure that there is an adjustment in the relation between countries the UN and the support those that are contributing with troops receive in order to be able to do it much better." He also indicated that there is a gap between theoretical zero-tolerance and the ineffective zero-tolerance that actually exists on the ground that needs to be overcome.

On 5 October, the 15-member United Nations Security Council announced that they had agreed to nominate Guterres, after an informal secret ballot in which he gained 13 encourage votes and two no opinion votes. Runner-up Kristalina Georgieva, officially supported by Germany, had 8 discouraging votes.

The UNSC will officially nominate Gutteres, by adopting a formal resolution on 6 October, which must then be also adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. Guterres is due to take office on 1 January 2017.

Other activities

• Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Advisor to the Board (2003-2005)
• European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), Member
• Friends of Europe, Member of the Board of Trustees

Personal life

In 1972, Guterres married Luísa Amélia Guimarães e Melo (b. Porto, 1 September 1946), with whom he had two children, Pedro Guimarães e Melo Guterres (b. 1977) and Mariana Guimarães e Melo de Oliveira Guterres (b. 1985). His wife died of cancer at the Royal Free Hospital in London on 28 January 1998.

In 2001, he married his second wife Catarina Marques de Almeida Vaz Pinto, born on 15 June 1960 in Portuguese Goa. He has a stepson, natural son of his second wife by José Carlos da Costa Ramos, named Francisco Vaz Pinto da Costa Ramos, born on 20 May 1998.

Other Sources:

http://www.un.org/pga/70/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/01/Portug...

http://visao.sapo.pt/actualidade/portugal/2016-10-05-Toda-a-histori...