Jan Kavan

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Jan Kavan

| image = Jan Kavan, IEIS conference «Russia and the EU the question of trust»-104.jpg

| imagesize =

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1946|10|17|df=y}}

| birth_place = London, United Kingdom

| order =

| title = President of the United Nations General Assembly

| term_start = 15 September 2002

| term_end = 16 September 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

| title3 = Senator from Prostějov

| term_start3 = 23 November 1996

| term_end3 = 23 November 2000

| predecessor3 = Office established

| successor3 = Robert Kolář

| title4 = Member of the Federal Assembly

| term_start4 = 7 June 1990

| term_end4 = 4 June 1992

| title5 = Member of the Chamber of Deputies

| term_start5 = 15 June 2002

| term_end5 = 15 June 2006

| spouse =

| profession = Politician

| party = SOCDEM

| alma_mater = Charles University,
London School of Economics,
University of Reading

| otherparty = Labour Party (1972-1990)

| caption = Kavan in 2014

}}

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

Biography

{{stack|File:Bush 2002 UNGA.jpg (below him President of the United States George W. Bush)]]}}

Kavan was born in London as the son of a Czechoslovak diplomat, Pavel Kavan, and a British teacher, Rosemary Kavanová. Kavan moved back to Czechoslovakia with his parents as a child. His father was then arrested in a Communist Party purge and sentenced to 25 years in prison in a show trial in the 1950s. He was eventually released, but died in 1960 aged 46. Kavan's mother later wrote a memoir, Love and Freedom. Kavan was one of the student leaders of the Prague Spring movement in 1968. When the movement was crushed by the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia, Kavan emigrated to the United Kingdom, the country of his birth, where he was a member of the Labour Party from 1972 to 1990.

Kavan is member of the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD). He was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic from 1998 to 2002 and one of the deputy prime ministers from 1999 to 2002. He was a member of the Czechoslovak Federal Assembly from 1990 to 1992, member of the Senate of the Czech Republic from 1996 to 2000, and a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 2002 to 2006. He was elected President of the United Nations General Assembly and acted in this office from 2002 to 2003.

Before returning to former Czechoslovakia after the fall of the Communist government, Kavan spent 20 years in exile in the UK. While in exile he was the editor-in-chief of the Palach Press, a press agency. He was also editor of the East European Reporter and vice-president of the East European Cultural Foundation, both organizations having been founded by him. In 1991, back in Czechoslovakia, Kavan was wrongly accused of collaboration with the Czechoslovak secret service (StB) in the years 1969–1970.Valachovský, P., Bok, J.: KATO: příběh opravdového člověka. Olomouc (2000): J. W. Hill. {{ISBN|80-86427-01-3}} He was totally cleared of the charges by a Prague Municipal Court in 1994 and finally, after a renewed process, by a Court of Appeals in January 1996.

He received several honorary degrees, including Honorary Fellow of the London School of Economics, Honorary Professor of Human Rights, Adelphi University of New York, and a number of human rights awards including Companion of Honour (UK), International Order of Merit (UK), and Presidential Roll of Honor (USA).

Kavan was educated at the Charles University in Prague, the London School of Economics and the University of Reading. He is divorced and has four children.

References

External links

{{stack|{{Commons category|Jan Kavan}}}}

[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] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050116061109/http://www.globalethics.bham.ac.uk/News_Events/JKBiog.htm |date=16 January 2005 }}
[https://www.un.org/ga/president/57/pages/news.html General Assembly President Jan Kavan's timeline] on the pages of United Nations

{{succession box

| before= Jaroslav Šedivý

| title= Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic

| years= 1998–2002

| after= Cyril Svoboda}}

{{succession box|before=Han Seung-soo|title=President of the United Nations General Assembly|years=2002–2003|after=Julian Hunte}}

Category:1946 births

Category:Living people

Category:Ministers of foreign affairs of the Czech Republic

Category:Presidents of the United Nations General Assembly

Category:English people of Czech descent

Category:Permanent representatives of the Czech Republic to the United Nations