At a time when the number of people uprooted by conflict and persecution stands at its highest since World War II, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres spoke about the main displacement and humanitarian challenges facing the international community today and in the future, and proposed ways to address them.
Guterres’s remarks continued a semester-long conversation about "The Global Future of Governance" convened by Georgetown's Global Futures Initiative.
António Guterres is a former Portuguese prime minister who was elected by the UN General Assembly to become the tenth United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in June 2005. As high commissioner, he heads one of the world's foremost humanitarian organizations, which has twice won the Nobel Peace Prize. Before joining UNHCR, Guterres spent more than 20 years in government and public service. He served as Portuguese prime minister from 1995 to 2002 and as president of the European Council in early 2000. Guterres also founded the Portuguese Refugee Council in 1991 and was part of the Council of State of Portugal from 1991 to 2002.