His Excellency Martin Bútora, is currently an Honorary President of the Institute for Public Affairs and Program Director of ‘European Integration and Transatlantic Relations’ Program. In the past, he has worked as a university professor, diplomat, Ambassador of Slovakia to the United States (1999-2003). Mr. Bútora is a graduate of the Faculty of Arts of the Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia, holding a degree in sociology. In the late sixties, he was active as an editor-in-chief of student newspapers “Echo bratislavských vysokoškolákov” [Echo of Bratislava’s University Students] and later as a deputy-chief editor of Reflex magazine and the weekly publication “Kultúrny život” [Cultural Life].

In November 1989, Mr. Bútora was one of the founders of the political movement, Public Against Violence. In the spring of 1990, as a member of its Coordinating Committee (KC VPN), he took part in crafting Movement’s election program –Chance for Slovakia. In the period of 1990- 1992, he held a position of a Human Rights Advisor to the President of Czech and Slovak Federal Republic Václav Havel, and the post of Director of the Human Rights Section in the Office of the President. In the early 1990s, he taught at Charles University in Prague (where he holds a position of Professor Habilis since 1992); later he taught at the Department of Political Science, Trnava University (1993 – 1998).

In 1997, he co-founded the Institute for Public Affairs and served as its first president. Ambassador Bútora is an author of three prosaic works, several TV programs and film scripts, and translations of theatrical plays. In 1999, National Endowment for Democracy based in Washington D.C. awarded him the Democracy Service Medal; in 2000, he received the Ján Papánek Medal; and in 2002, the American Jewish Committee awarded him the Celebration of Freedom Award. In the same year, he received the Order of Ľudovít Štúr for his contribution to the defense of human rights and development of civil society from the President of Slovakia.

(Image Credit: Pavol Frešo, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)