Ceremony of the Universidade de Lisboa Award 2020

The Universidade de Lisboa Award 2020 was established by ULisboa and is supported by Caixa Geral de Depósitos. In this year edition the ceremony will be attended by the President of the Portuguese Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the Rector of Universidade de Lisboa, Luís Ferreira and the Chief Executive Officer of Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Paulo Moita de Macedo.

The 2020 Award edition recognizes António Guterres unique contribution to Portugal and to the rest of the world. That was only possible due to his exceptional human and intellectual qualities.

The Universidade de Lisboa Award aims to distinguish and reward individuals who have made a notable contribution to the progress and enhancement of Science and/or Culture and to the international projection of the country.

António Guterres is a humanist, permanently committed to the need to build an increasingly fair and sustainable society, which has earned him a notable public resonance, with great civic significance. His social concerns, revealed since his  academic days, have guided his entire life and professional activity.
 

António Guterres, the ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations, took office on 1st January 2017.

Prior to his appointment as Secretary-General, Guterres served as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from June 2005 to December 2015, heading one of the world’s foremost humanitarian organizations during some of the most serious displacement crises in decades. The conflicts in Syria and Iraq, and the crises in South Sudan, the Central African Republic and Yemen, led to a huge rise in UNHCR’s activities as the number of people displaced by conflict and persecution rose from 38 million in 2005 to over 60 million in 2015.

Before joining UNHCR, Guterres spent more than 20 years in government and public service. He served as prime minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002, during which time he was heavily involved in the international effort to resolve the crisis in East Timor.

As President of the European Council in early 2000, he led the adoption of the Lisbon Agenda for growth and jobs, and co-chaired the first European Union-Africa summit. He was a member of the Portuguese Council of State from 1991 to 2002.

António Guterres was elected to the Portuguese Parliament in 1976 where he served as a member for 17 years. During that time, he chaired the Parliamentary Committee for Economy, Finance and Planning, and later the Parliamentary Committee for Territorial Administration, Municipalities and Environment. He was also leader of his party’s parliamentary group. From 1981 to 1983, Guterres was a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, where he chaired the Committee on Demography, Migration and Refugees.

For many years he was active in the Socialist International, a worldwide organization of social democratic political parties. He was the group’s vice-president from 1992 to 1999, co-chairing the African Committee and later the Development Committee. He served as President from 1999 until mid-2005. In addition, he founded the Portuguese Refugee Council as well as the Portuguese Consumers Association DECO, and served as president of the Centro de Acção Social Universitário, an association carrying out social development projects in poor neighbourhoods of Lisbon, in the early 1970s, as a student at Instituto Superior Técnico.

Guterres is a member of the Club of Madrid, a leadership alliance of democratic former presidents and prime ministers from around the world.

António Guterres was born in Lisbon in 1949 and graduated from the Instituto Superior Técnico with a degree in engineering.