Jorge Sampaio
Former President of the Portuguese Republic, United Nations Secretary-General’s High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations and Special Envoy to Stop Tuberculosis
Jorge Sampaio started his political career as a college student at University of Lisbon’s Law School. Following his graduation in 1961, Sampaio began a notable career as a lawyer.
In 1978, he joined the Socialist Party. He was later elected deputy for Lisbon in the Portuguese National Parliament the following year. From 1979 until 1984, he was a member of the European Commission for Human Rights. He later became the president of the parliamentary bench of the Socialist Party. From 1989 to 1991, he was president of this political group.
Sampaio won the presidential election in 1996 and then for a second term in 2001, thus serving until March 2006. As President, his actions were mainly focused on education, social issues, human rights for all, and European and international affairs.
Jorge Sampaio was appointed in May 2006 by the United Nations Secretary-General as his Special Envoy to Stop Tuberculosis. His task is to work to reach the Millennium Development Goal of beginning to reverse the incidence of the disease by 2015. In April 2007, he was appointed as the High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations, a UN initiative aimed at crossing cultural and religious divides between communities.
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