The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, is coming to Belgrade this week in the context of his first visit to the region, where he will talk to the highest state officials about the position and problems of refugees in Serbia and the region. On Thursday, Guterres will meet with the Serbian President Boris Tadić, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Jeremić, the Deputy Prime Minister Jovan Krkobabić and the Commissar for Refugees Vladimir Cucić.

 

As it was stated by the UNHCR Office in Belgrade, it is planned to visit the collective centre in Krnjača in which refugees and internally displaced persons are accommodated. Likewise, meetings are intended with the Ambassadors of donor countries and Vlade Divac, the main private donor in Serbia.

 

The High Commissioner of the UN will talk to Serbian officials, as indicated, about the efforts for the solving of the long-lasting refugee crisis in Serbia and the region, which is a part of the global initiative for solving refugee problems, set into motion in December 2008. The former Premiere Antonio Guterres has been the Head of the UNHCR since 2005, with a mandate of five years. He will come to Belgrade on Wednesday evening after his visit to Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

  

Brief biography of Antonio Guterres

 

Antonio Guterres has commenced his duty as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on 15 June 2005, succeeding Ruud Lubbers who held the position of High Commissioner of the UN for Refugees from 2001 – 2005. The former Premiere of Portugal, Antonio Guterres, was elected into this position by the General Assembly of the UN with a mandate of five years.

 

Antonio Guterres is the 10^th UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The High Commissioner is heading one of the leading humanitarian agencies with over 6.000 staff members who work in 115 countries, providing protection and aid to more than 19 million refugees and other vulnerable groups for which the UNHCR provides care.

 

Before the entering into power of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres has been carrying out various tasks for the government and the state administration of Portugal for 20 years. He was the Portuguese Prime Minister from 1996 to 2002, when he spearheaded the representatives of the international community in the peace-keeping process in East Timor. As the President of the European Council in the beginning of the 2000s Guterres has co-chaired the first summit of the European Union and African countries when the so-called Lisbon charter was adopted. Antonio Guterres is also the founder of the Portuguese Refugee Council in 1991, which has also been a part of the State Council of Portugal from 1991 to 2002. From 1981 to 1983 Antonio Guterres has been a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe when he was also chairing the Committee for Demography, Migration and Refugees. Antonio Guterres was active in the Socialists International as the Vice-President of this organisation from 1992 to 1999, when he became president and held this position until June 2005. Antonio Guterres was born on 30 April 1949 in Lisbon, graduated from Instituto Superior Tecnico where he is also guest lecturer. He is married and has two children.

 

Previous UN High Commissioners for Refugees:

 

December 1950 - July 1956.	G.J. van Heuven Goedhart	Netherlands
December 1956 - December 1960.	Auguste R. Lindt	Switzerland
December 1960 - December 1965.	Felix Schnyder	Switzerland
December 1965 - December 1977.	Sadruddin Aga Khan	Iran
January 1978 - December 1985.	Poul Hartling	Denmark
January 1986 - November 1989.	Jean-Pierre Hocké	Switzerland
January 1990 - November 1990.	Thorvald Stoltenberg	Norway
February 1991 - December 2000.	Sadako Ogata	Japan
January 2001 - 24 February 2005	Ruud Lubbers	Netherlands
June 2005 -	Antonio Guterres	Portugal