Danilo Türk

Danilo Turk

President of Slovenia 2007-2012

Date and place of birth:

Born on 19 February 1952, in Maribor, Slovenia.

Education:

  • Studied law at University of Ljubljana
  • MA, University of Belgrade's Law School
  • PhD, University in Ljubljana

Professional and Political Experience:

He is a professor of international law and has worked as diplomat and a human rights expert. In the period 1992-2000 Dr Türk was Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia to the United Nations. In 1997 he led the campaign of Slovenia for the non-permanent seat of the UN Security Council. During his term as the representative of Slovenia on the UN Security Council from 1998 to 1999 he was President of the Security Council twice.

Following the successful conclusion of his term on the Security Council he was invited to join the UN Secretariat by Mr. Kofi Annan, then Secretary-General of the UN. In the years 2000-2005 Dr. Türk served as UN Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs. In addition to geographically defined crisis situations he dealt with such thematic issues as the responsibility to protect and preventive diplomacy.

During his term of office as the third President of the Republic of Slovenia (2007-2012) Dr. Danilo Türk paid special attention to Slovenia’s international cooperation and in particular the country’s work in the multilateral institutions. 

In November 2015 he was appointed Chairman of the Global High Level Panel on Water and Peace. Since March 2014 he is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Global Fairness Initiative, a Washington based NGO active in the field of development projects intended to alleviate poverty in developing countries.

Dr. Danilo Türk is professor emeritus at the Faculty of Law, University in Ljubljana, visiting professor at Columbia University, New York and honorary professor of law and visiting senior fellow of the Chongyang Institute on Finance, both at the Renmin University of China, Beijing. He received a number of honours and decorations, among them an honorary GCB. On 23 December 2015 the Government of the Republic of Slovenia decided to nominate Dr. Danilo Türk as candidate for the post of the Secretary-General of the United Nations.