Stop TB Partnership

About Jorge Sampaio

Jorge Sampaio is a former President of the Portuguese Republic (1996-2006) and Mayor of Lisbon (1990-95) who is currently serving as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to Stop TB.

He was appointed to this role in May 2006 by Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General at the time, to help him raise the issue of tuberculosis on the international political and development agendas and pursue the implementation of the Global Plan to Stop TB 2006-2015 as a road map to achieving the relevant Millennium Development Goals.

The Special Envoy enjoys a direct and independent reporting line to the Secretary-General as well as a privileged relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General. He is supported and assisted by the Stop TB Partnership Secretariat and WHO’s Stop TB Department.

President Sampaio also serves as the first United Nations High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations, the international initiative set up in 2005 to promote reconciliation between religions, cultures and nations.

President Sampaio, whose father was a doctor specializing in public health, spent long periods of his childhood in the United States and England. He graduated from the Law School of the University of Lisbon—where he was involved in the student movement against the fascist regime—and began his law career, often defending political prisoners. He founded the Portuguese Social Left Movement following the Carnation Revolution of 1974, and joined the Socialist Party in 1978. His first elected position was deputy for Lisbon in the Portuguese National Parliament in 1979, and between 1979 and 1984 he was a member of the European Commission for Human Rights.

He is married to Maria José Ritta and has two children.