Dr. Kinga Göncz – Minister of Foreign Affairs

1947 – Born in Budapest.

1972 – Finished the Faculty of Medicine at the Semmelweis University of Medicine in Budapest. In 1978, specialised in Psychiatry, in the second half of the 1980s, specialised in Psychotherapy. In 2004 obtained the Diploma in Psychotherapy of the European Association for Psychotherapy.

1972 - 1978: Worked as a psychiatrist. Following this, she was a senior assistant at the National Medical Rehabilitation Institute, and took part in the development of the first social policy educational programmes.

1989 - Associate professor at the Social Policy and Social Work Department of the Institute for Sociology of ELTE University, Budapest, teaching among others communication skills development, mediation and organisation development.

1994 - 2002: Worked as the Director of Partners Hungary. The organisation is a member of an American-founded international network, with the goal of the education of the culture of creative conflict management, techniques of democracy, negotiation techniques and change management. Within this, Dr. Kinga Göncz worked on the establishment of centres for the prevention and management of social conflicts in Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and in the former Yugoslavia.

1990 - Lectured at several universities abroad. Between 1998 and 2003, she taught the Social Psychology of Prejudice at the Human Rights Department at the Central European University, Budapest.

2002 - Political State Secretary of the Ministry for Health, Social and Family Affairs responsible for civil co-ordination. She was responsible for: the elaboration of the system of keeping contacts with state and non-governmental social policy related organisations, the professional leading of the work for the amendment of the law on social affairs, and the heading of the National Council on Aging and Older People, the Social Council, the National Council for the Issues of Disabled Persons and the Ministry’s Tripartite Council for the Reconciliation of Interests.

15th June 2004 – Minister without portfolio for Equal Opportunities, responsible for disabled persons, Romas, the equal opportunities of women and men, co-operation with NGOs, and for the co-ordination of the fight against poverty and segregation.

29th October 2004 – 8th June 2006: Minister of Youth, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. During her assignment at this position, she was responsible, besides the areas she managed as minister without portfolio for equal opportunities, for the heading of the welfare system, the system of family support, the area of caring for children and youth, the affairs of the elderly and pensions, the question of drugs, as well as consumer protection.

9th June 2006 – Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Speaks English and German, married with two grown-up children being the grandmother of a young boy.