dr. Smiljana Knez

Curriculum Vitae

Dr Smiljana Knez is currently serving as Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia to the Republic of the Philippines. She presented her credentials to the President of the Republic of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., as Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia on 26 February 2025. Prior to assuming this post, she served for two years as Ambassador-at-Large for Climate Diplomacy. From July 2019 to December 2022, she was Foreign Policy Advisor to the President of the Republic of Slovenia. Between 2011 and 2015, she served as Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia to the Czech Republic, and from 2016 to 2019, as Ambassador to the Republic of Croatia. For five years, between 2006 and 2011, Smiljana Knez headed the Human Rights Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and during Slovenia’s first Presidency of the Council of the European Union, she chaired the EU Working Group on Human Rights. She also served as Deputy Ambassador of Slovenia to the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom.

She graduated from the Faculty of Sociology, Political Sciences and Journalism at the University of Ljubljana. She obtained her Master's degree at King's College London in 2006 and her PhD from the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, in 2013. She is a lecturer at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and a recipient of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.