Portugal maintains a Platform for Syrian Students founded by Jorge Sampaio
The United Nations today paid tribute to former Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio, former High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations, in a ceremony attended by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, which included testimony by the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, among several diplomats at the organization.
Augusto Santos Silva noted Sampaio’s contribution to current problems such as pandemics – as the UN’s special envoy for the fight against tuberculosis in 2006 – to promote public health, advance intercultural and interreligious dialogue and protect human rights , including the right to education.
The minister expressed Portugal’s commitment to continue advancing the Global Platform for Syrian Students, founded by Jorge Sampaio, which has become a “true catalyst for higher education”, with a rapid response mechanism, in addition to the scholarship program , which has benefited 750 students since 2014.
At the ceremony co-organized in New York by the Mission of Portugal to the UN and the Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), for which Sampaio was the first high representative between 2007 and 2013, several international dignitaries paid tribute to the former head of Portuguese state, deceased at the age of 81, on 10 September.
UN Secretary General António Guterres highlighted an “exceptional legacy” of Jorge Sampaio, devoted to “noble causes and improving the lives of people around the world”.
The former president was a “global and multilateralist citizen,” Guterres said.
“Jorge Sampaio was a successful architect of an important United Nations mechanism. The Alliance’s objective is simple and complex, to promote preventive diplomacy and to build bridges of dialogue and understanding between cultures and religions. This effort is still of great importance today.” , registered the UN Secretary General.
The President of Turkey and Co-founder of the Alliance of Civilizations, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, stated in a video statement that Jorge Sampaio “exercised tirelessly to transform an Alliance into a structure dedicated to global peace” and that with his leadership he focuses on a “crucial component of the System of the United Nations”.
“At a time when Islamophobia, racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia are on the rise, the vision and value of the UNAOC are better known than ever,” added the Turkish President.
The current UNAOC high representative, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, said that the world is “going through difficult times”, defined by “distrust, hatred, discrimination”, in which, more than ever, it is necessary to practice a phrase familiar to Jorge Sampaio: “solidarity is not optional, it is a duty”.
Some members of Jorge Sampaio’s family followed an online ceremony, unable to travel to New York because of the covid-19 pandemic.
The daughter, Vera Ritta de Sampaio, said the president always maintained “a great protec- tion at the United Nations” and expressed gratitude for the tribute, on behalf of the former president’s family.