Jan Kavan

Infobox Politician
name = Jan Kavan


imagesize = 200px
birth_date = birth date and age|1946|10|17|
birth_place = London, United Kingdom
order=
title=President of the United Nations General Assembly
term_start = 2002
term_end = 2003
predecessor = Han Seung-soo
successor = Julian Hunte
order2=3rd
title2= Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic
religion =
term_start2 = 22 July 1998
term_end2 = 12 July 2002
primeminister2 = Miloš Zeman
predecessor2 = Jaroslav Šedivý
successor2 = Cyril Svoboda
spouse =
profession = Politician
party = ČSSD

Jan Kavan (born October 17 1946 in London) is a Czech diplomat and politician.

Biography

Kavan was born in London as a son of a Czech diplomat and English teacher. He is a member of the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD). He was the foreign minister of the Czech Republic from 1998 until 2002, a deputy prime minister from 1999 until 2002. He was a member of the Federal Assembly from 1990 till 1992. member of the Senate from 1996 till 2000 and a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 2002 till 2006. He was also the President of the United Nations General Assembly from 2002 until 2003. Before returning to former Czechoslovakia after the fall of the Communist government, Jan Kavan spent 20 years in exile in the UK. While in exile he was the editor of the "Palach Press" press agency, editor of the East European Reporter and Vice-President of the East European Cultural Foundation. Kavan was accused in 1991 of collaboration with Czechoslovak secret service (StB). [Valachovský, P., Bok, J.: "KATO: příběh opravdového člověka." Olomouc (2000): J. W. Hill. ISBN 80-86427-01-3] . He was totally cleared by the Prague court in 1994 and finally by the appeal court in January 1996. He received several honorary degrees, including Honorary Fellow of the LSE,London and Honorary Professor of Human Rights, Adelphi University, New York and a number of human rights awards including Companion of Honour (UK), International Order of Merit (UK), Presidential Roll of Honor (USA).

He is divorced and has four children.

External links

* [http://www.mzv.cz/wwwo/mzv/default.asp?id=9131&ido=7970&idj=1&amb=1 Biography at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic]
* [http://www.globalethics.bham.ac.uk/News_Events/JKBiog.htm Biography]

References