António Guterres

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António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres (born 30 April 1949) is a Portuguese politician and diplomat who is serving as the ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Previously, he was the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015.Guterres was the prime minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002 and was the secretary-general of the Socialist Party from 1992 to 2002.

He served as president of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005. In both a 2012 and 2014 poll, the Portuguese public ranked him as the best prime minister of the previous 30 years.

Personal life

In 1972, Guterres married child psychiatrist Luísa Amélia Guimarães e Melo, with whom he had two children, Pedro Guimarães e Melo Guterres (born 1977) and Mariana Guimarães e Melo de Oliveira Guterres (born 1985). His wife died of cancer at the Royal Free Hospital in London in 1998 at the age of 51.

In 2001, Guterres married Catarina Marques de Almeida Vaz Pinto (born 1960), a former Portuguese state secretary for culture and culture secretary for the City Council of Lisbon.

In addition to his native Portuguese, Guterres speaks English, French, and Spanish.

Guterres is a practicing Catholic.

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Early life, education, and early career

Guterres was born in Parede and raised in Lisbon, Portugal, the son of Virglio Dias Guterres (1913-2009) and Ilda Cândida Guterres (1923-2021).

He attended the Cameum (now Cames Secondary School), where he graduated in 1965 as the country's top student, receiving the National Lyceum Award (Prémio Nacional dos Liceus). At Instituto Superior Técnico – Technical University of Lisbon, he studied physics and electrical engineering. He began his academic work in 1971 and embarked on a career as an assistant professor researching electronics theory and telecommunications signals before moving to begin a political career. He joined the Group of Light, a young Catholic fraternity, where he met Father Vtor Melcias, a prominent Franciscan priest and church administrator who is still a close friend and confidant, during his university years.

Political career

Guterres' political career began in 1974, when he first joined the Socialist Party in 1974. He left academic life and became a full-time politician a short time after. Guterres became active in the aftermath of the Carnation Revolution, 1974, which brought an end to Caetano's tyranthood, and he served in the following positions: 24 April 1974, Guterres became involved in the Socialist Party leadership and served in the following posts:

Guterres was a member of the team that negotiated the terms of Portugal's entry into the European Union in the late 1970s. In 1991, he was a founding member of the Portuguese Refugee Council.

Guterres, the Socialist Party's third straight loss in Parliamentary elections, became the head of the opposition and cabinet secretary in 1992 under Anisbal Cavaco Silva's administration. He was the party's third leader in six years at the time. In September 1992, he was also chosen as one of the Socialist International's top vice presidents.

Guterres' re-election represented a departure from Socialist tradition: not only was Guterres not connected with then-president and former prime minister Mário Soares nor the party's left wing led by Guterres' predecessor Sampaio, but he was also a devout Catholic, running counter to the party's historical secularism. In the run-up to the next general election, he worked with Portugal's civil society in establishing a strategy, consulting with a variety of academics, researchers, and entrepreneurs from around the country and the political spectrum.

Anbal Cavaco Silva did not seek a fourth term as prime minister of Portugal (in order to run in the 1996 presidential election), and the Socialist Party won the 1995 parliamentary election. On October 28, President Soares nominated Guterres as Prime Minister and his cabinet took the oath of office.

Guterres operated on a platform of keeping a tight grip on budget growth and inflation in the hopes of ensuring that Portugal fulfilled the Euro convergence requirements by the end of the decade, especially among women, as well as raising tax collection and cracking down on tax avoidance, greater investment in education. He was one of seven Social Democratic prime ministers in the European Union at the time, joining political allies in Spain, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Greece, and the Netherlands.

Guterres was a popular prime minister in his first years in office, with a style markedly different from that of his predecessor, as a result of dialogue and discussion with all segments of society. Portugal's economic boom enabled the Socialists to minimize budget deficits while still increasing welfare spending and establishing new conditional cash transfer services, which enabled the Socialists to minimize budget deficits while simultaneously raising welfare expenditures and inventing new conditional cash transfer services. Cavaco Silva's government also expanded the privatization initiative, which resulted in an increase of 19.6% in 1994 to 5.5% five years later, with profits from privatizations increasing from 1996 to 1999. Since the company's privatization in 1996, 800,000 people invested in Portugal Telecom, and 750,000 applied for shares in Electricidade de Portugal.

Guterres presided over Expo 98 in Lisbon, commemorating the 500th anniversary of Vasco da Gama's voyage in 1998. Two national referendums were held in 1998. In June, the first one was held in June and asked voters whether abortion laws should be liberalized. The Socialist Party split on the issue of liberalization, and Guterres led the anti-abortion campaign, which eventually gained the referendum. In November, a second referendum was held, this time over the mainland's regionalization. Both Guterres and his party favoured such a change in government, but the people opposed it.

Guterres said in 1995 that "he did not like homosexuality" and that it was "something that bothered him," contrary to his party's position and after the removal of homosexuality from the WHO's list of mental disorders.

Guterres advocated for United Nations involvement in East Timor in 1999, after the country was practically destroyed by Indonesian-backed militias when it voted for independence. In 1999, he brought the 12-year talks on the sale of power over Macau, which had been a Portuguese colony, to Chinese hands.

The Socialist Party and the opposition gained exactly the same number of MPs (115). Guterres was reelected to office and the European Council's six-month rotating presidency was held from January to July 2000. However, his second term in office was not as fruitful. Internal party conflicts, an economic recession, and the Hintze Ribeiro Bridge disaster destroyed his authority and fame. However, during his second term, several long-lived reforms were implemented: in October 2000, the Parliament approved the decriminalization of opioid use (effective 1 July 2001), and similar-sex civil unions were established in March 2001.

Guterres resigned in December 2001, following the Socialist Party's humiliating defeat in municipal elections, following a humiliating defeat, Guterres resigned to "prevent the country from sinking into a political swamp." President Jorge Sampaio called for re-elections after dissolved Parliament. Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, the Socialist Party's leader before, assumed the Social Democratic Party, but the general election was skewed against the Social Democratic Party of José Manuel Duro Barroso, who later became President of the European Commission.

Guterres was elected president of Socialist International in November 1999, overlapping with his second term as prime minister of Portugal until his resignation in December 2001. He served as president of the Socialist International until June 2005.

Diplomatic career

George Papandreou was elected vice president of the Socialist International in 2005, following Guterres's call; in 2006, Papandreou succeeded him as president of the Socialist International.

Guterres was elected High Commissioner for Refugees by the United Nations General Assembly in May 2005, replacing Ruud Lubbers.

Guterres, the former president of one of the world's largest humanitarian organisations, which gave more than 10,000 refugees, refugees, internally displaced persons, and stateless citizens a life of dignity. His time in office was marked by fundamental organizational reform, lowering administrative and administrative costs in the UNHCR's Geneva head office, and increasing the UNHCR's emergency response capability in the worst displacement crisis since the Second World War.

Guterres visited Beijing, China, from 19 to 23, 2006, and expressed his opposition to the Chinese government's repatriation of North Korean refugees.

Guterres said that this was one of the most significant refugee crises in the Middle East since 1948 in a February 2007 NPR interview largely devoted to the plight of Iraqi refugees. Among poorly reported refugee crises, he cited those in the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He worked primarily to obtain international help for the refugees of the Syrian civil war's refugees, calling the refugee crisis a "existential" one for host countries (such as Lebanon and Jordan) and calling for further assistance. He was an outspoken advocate for a more coordinated and humane response by European countries to the Mediterranean refugee crisis. He launched a US$5 billion relief drive in June 2013 to support up to 10.25 million Syrians this year.

Guterres named Angelina Jolie, an American actress, as his special envoy to represent UNHCR and himself at the diplomatic level in 2012. They visited the Kilis Oncupinar Accommodation Facility in Istanbul (2012), the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan (2013), and the Armed Forces of Malta's Maritime Squadron (2015). They also appeared before the United Nations Security Council together in 2015.

On the recommendation of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the General Assembly extended Guterres' mandate by 61 months to December 31. The UNHCR's 98-member executive commission (EXCOM) later requested that Ban recommend Guterres' term extension by another year, but Ban denied the request. Guterres resigned as the corporation's second-longest term as Prime Minister in the country's history after Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan's resignation on December 31.

President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa nominated Guterres to serve as a member of the Council of State of Portugal in 2015, but he resigned after being named as the country's ninth secretary general.

Following his formal election by the UN General Assembly on October 13, 2016, Guterres assumed the UN Secretary-General on January 1, 2017.

Guterres announced himself as Portugal's nominee for the 2016 UN secretary-general election on February 29. This was the first time candidates for secretary general had to testify in public hearings in the United General Assembly, a process in which Guterres emerged as a much more credible candidate than had expected given that he did not fit the bill on neither the gender nor the geographic rankings.

After an informal secret election in which Guterres received 13 "encourage" votes and two "no opinion" votes, the 15-member United Nations Security Council declared on October 5th that it had decided to nominate him. Guterres was officially nominated by the Security Council in a formal resolution on October 6th. He was officially elected by the United Nations General Assembly in its 71st session a week later. Guterres took power on January 1st 2017.

After the Ban Ki-moon administration denied the issue for several months, the UN's role in the Haiti cholera outbreak was widely discussed and chastised. According to the Boston-based Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, as well as several scholarly reports, the UN is the most likely source for bringing cholera to Haiti. Peacekeepers sent from Nepal in 2010 were sick of asymptomatic cholera and failed to dispose their garbage properly before dumping it into one of Haiti's main waterways. Jamaica, on behalf of the Caribbean Community, asked if the UN should assume responsibility for any deaths within local populations that result from the introduction of infectious diseases by its peacekeepers, during his UNSG informal dialogue. It was also asked if Guterres believed that compensation should be provided. Guterres referred to the situation as a "particularly difficult problem," adding that he was trying to find the right balance between these two variables that are absolutely crucial." Haiti's current and future responses to the cholera outbreak, according to a UN General Assembly representative, "a litmus test of the system's commitment to human rights." Although some had hoped that Guterres' term would herd a departure from Ban's response to the disease, Guterres has done nothing to indicate a commitment to Haitian cholera victims. Only $10 million had been contributed to the $400 million fund to fight cholera and provide material assistance to victims as of April 2017, five months into his term as secretary-general.

Anders Kompass exposed the sexual abuse of children by peacekeepers in the Central African Republic in 2016 and, as a result, was barred from Ban's government before being rehabilitated in court. Guterres said it was absolutely intolerable that UN forces commit human rights abuses, including rape and sexual assault during informal discussions at United Nations Secretary General Candidate. "All of us, states and UN, must do our best to ensure that any sort of conduct of this sort is severely punished," he said. The United States prompted the suggestion that international tribunals might prosecute peacekeepers for their crimes. Guterres said that an independent government would be wonderful, but that "the only way to get there is through a new agreement between countries, the UN, and those that support troops receive in order to do it better." He also mentioned that there is a difference between theoretical zero tolerance and ineffective zero tolerance that exists on the ground and must be addressed. Guterres reiterated that tolerance was not appropriate in a address at the Washington National Cathedral, and that the world should spread more compassion, unity, and love.

Guterres promised to make 2017 a year of peace on the first day as UN secretary general. "Let's resolve to put peace first," he said. Following the adoption of the New Urban Agenda, Guterres appointed an 8-member Independent Panel to assess and improve UN-Habitat's performance. Urban experts and the African Urban Institute all condemned the panel's recommendation to create an independent coordination mechanism, 'UN-Urban.' "Secretary-General António Guterres warned the Trump administration that if the US disengages from certain topics confronting the international community, it will be replaced."

Guterres expressed sadness in reaction to the death of Chinese Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died of organ failure while in government detention. Guterres waited for Spanish authorities to find a solution amid the unrest after the 2017 Catalan independence referendum. When Catalonia declared independence on October 27, 2017, he sent the same message, but said the solution should be made within the constitutional framework.

Guterres chastised Saudi Arabia's-led intervention in Yemen and the blockade of Yemen's naval, land, and air blockade. The blockade has exacerbated Yemen's dire humanitarian crisis. The invasion in Yemen, according to Guterres, is "a stupid war." I believe this war is in violation of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates' interests [and] of the people of Yemen." Guterres debuffed US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Guterres said in March 2018 that the people of Syria's Eastern Ghouta were living in "hell on earth." According to a UN satellite imagery report, 93% of buildings in one district had been destroyed or lost by December. A new series of bombings has caused more chaos.

Guterres called the 2018 North Korea-United States summit a "historic landmark" for nuclear disarmament. He urged both sides to "seize this historic opportunity" and offer UN assistance to achieve the end of demantling North Korea's nuclear program. Guterres requested an independent inquiry into a Saudi Arabian-led coalition air attack in Yemen that killed 51 civilians, including 40 children in August.

Guterres condemned the persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar and called for a more effective response to the situation. Guterres was the first minister to say that technology will undermine labor markets like never before and that universal basic income is needed. When China sent ethnic Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities to the Xinjiang re-education camps in 2019, human rights organizations chastised Guterres for being "silent." Guterres has been "notably silent on one of the most significant,... the most brazen human rights abuses," Human Rights Watch chief Kenneth Roth said, "because he is concerned about upsetting the Chinese."

Guterres said in June that the "U.N. has the right to assume global leadership" in combating climate change in the context of a visit to Tuvalu's pacific island of Tuvalu. He had previously supported other multilateral environmental campaigns, such as the Global Pact for Environment, which was introduced by France in September 2017. Guterres, a Palestinian king of the Jordan Valley, condemned Israeli plans to annex the eastern portion of the occupied West Bank. Guterres expressed his "deep fear" at the growing brutality in Syria a day after Turkey launched an attack in Kurdish-controlled areas. Any solution to the crisis, he said, must respect the integrity of the territories and the unity of Syria.

Guterres lauded the Israel–United Arab peace deal, saying that he welcomes "any initiative that can promote peace and stability in the Middle East region." Guterres expressed the desire that the compromise between Israel and Sudan to normalize relations would bring prosperity and stability to Israel and Sudan. Guterres expressed his sympathy for all people in need in Lebanon, especially women and girls who are the most vulnerable in times of crisis on August 10, 2020. He appealed for international cooperation to escape COVID-19 on September 22nd and called for a global ceasefire by the end of 2020. Guterres said in September that he will continue with "a serious dialogue" with UN member states in the hopes of a comprehensive reform of the UN Security Council.

Guterres expressed grave concern about the increasing of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh's contested region, demanding that Armenia and Azerbaijan immediately halt fighting and move toward a peaceful settlement on October 6, 2020.

The United Nations Security Council endorsed his re-election as secretary-general on June 8th. Guterres was elected for a second term by the United Nations General Assembly in June 2021, during a voting season.

Guterres returned to Ukraine in April 2022 as part of the Russia-Ukraine War. Even as he was there, he was surprised to learn that the Russian army shelled parts of Kyiv. Following Guterres' visit to Ukraine and Russia, dozens of civilians were photographed by Reuters as being evacuated by Russian troops from their entrenched positions in Mariupol's Azovstal iron works. "Instead of putting the brakes on the global economy's decarbonization, Guterres said that now is the time to step foot to the pedal in a sustainable energy future."

Guterres went on a tour around West Africa in May 2022. There, he met families who have been affected by the Islamist revolt, as well as calls for more African peace initiatives and other anti-terrorism activities under the African Union's wing.

The United Nations under Guterres' leadership broke a deal between Russia and Ukraine on July 22, 2022, opening the export of grain from Ukrainian ports.

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