SECRETARY-GENERAL INTRODUCES NEW HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES

AT HEADQUARTERS PRESS CONFERENCE

 

Following are UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s remarks introducing the new United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres, to the media, in New York, 27 June:

It’s a very great pleasure to introduce António Guterres, the new High Commissioner for Refugees.

I say “new”, because he’s been in the job less than two weeks, and because this is your first opportunity to meet him since he took it on.

But he certainly hasn’t wasted any time getting started.  He has already been on his first field mission, to northern Uganda.  He went there to meet Sudanese refugees who’ve been driven out of Sudan into Uganda -- not by the Sudanese Government, but by Ugandan rebels.

It’s a tragic and twisted situation, and all too good an introduction to the problems UNHCR has to wrestle with every day, in so many parts of the world.

The agency has a wonderful staff, with a sense of shared purpose and unquestioned integrity.  And so Antonio has an excellent team to lead and inspire.

It’s a formidable challenge -- and I’d particularly like to thank Wendy Chamberlin for managing a very difficult transition as Acting High Commissioner, with exemplary coolness and aplomb.

But I have no doubt that António is the right person to take on this challenge. 

As you know, we had a very transparent and competitive selection process.  There were at least half a dozen outstanding candidates, and it wasn’t at all an easy choice to make.  But in the end he was clearly the best.

He did a remarkable job as Prime Minister of Portugal for six years -- and remember that Portugal has a unique experience of integrating a refugee population after its African colonies became independent in the 1970s.

I am proud to count António as a friend, and to welcome him as a colleague.  We are very lucky to have him.  Now let him speak for himself.

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