Antonio Guterres Officially Appointed as New UN Secretary-General

Antonio Manuel de Oliveira Guterres has been officially appointed as the new UN Secretary General on October 13.

Antonio Guterres, politician and former prime minister of Portugal, will succeed Ban Ki-moon on January 1.

Ban Ki-moon warmly congratulates Antonio Guterres on his election as the 9th Secretary-General of the United Nations. pic.twitter.com/x6yNRp3o0w

— UN Spokesperson (@UN_Spokesperson) 13 октября 2016 г.

Guterres’ political career started when he entered Parliament in 1976. Guterres served as the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002.

Guterres has been a member of the Socialist party of Portugal since 1974. He is known for his active work on behalf of the Socialist International, a worldwide association of social-democratic parties, where he performed the office of chairman in 1999-2005.

For ten years, from 2005 to 2015, Guterres served as the high commissioner of the United Nations for refugees. During his term the number of people resettled as a result of conflicts and persecution, rose from 38 million people in 2005 to 60 million in 2015. He worked with resettling of refugees from Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, Central African Republic and Yemen.

Earlier on October 5, the current President of Security Council Vitaly Churkin announced that Guterres’ candidacy emerged as a clear leader after a sixth-straw vote at the Security Council.