High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations

Jorge Sampaio started his political career as a college student at the Law School of the University of Lisbon. Following his graduation in 1961, he began a notable career as a lawyer. In 1978, he joined the Socialist Party. He was 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 and from 1989 to 1991, was president of this political group.
Jorge Sampaio won the Portuguese presidential elections in 1996 and in 2001 and served until March 2006.
He was appointed in May 2006 by the United Nations Secretary-General as his Special Envoy to Stop Tuberculosis. His task is to work towards reaching the Millennium Development Goal and begin to reverse the incidence of the disease by 2015. In April 2007, he was appointed as the High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations.