Jan Kavan is a Czech politician aligned with the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD). From 1998 until 2002, he served as Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic and was Deputy Prime Minister from 1999 until 2002. He was then elected as President of the United Nations General Assembly, a post he held from 2002 until 2003. He currently serves as Chairman of the Czech-Slovak-Iranian Chamber of Commerce.
Mr Kavan is an Honorary Fellow at the London School of Economics and has an Honorary Doctorate of Humane letters at Adelphi University, New York. He has also received several human rights awards including Companion of Honour (UK), International Order of Merit (UK), Presidential Roll of Honor (USA).
He is also a member of the Advisory Board for the European Leadership Network (ELN).