High Commissioner António Guterres
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

António Guteress has been the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees since June 2005. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was established in 1950 by the U.N. General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and coordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally, or resettle in a third country. UNHCR also leads efforts to prevent and reduce statelessness. In more than five decades, the agency has helped 50 million people restart their lives. Today, a staff of around 6,500 people in more than 116 countries continues to help nearly 32 million persons--including refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, and stateless persons. Mr. Guterres served as prime minister of Portugal from 1996 to 2002. He was strongly involved in international efforts to end the crisis in East Timor. Throughout his career, Mr. Guterres has been a tireless advocate for the rights of refugees and asylum seekers. From 1981 to 1983, he served as a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and chaired its Committee on Demography, Migration and Refugees. In 1991, he founded the Portuguese Refugee Council. 

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