Columbia Center for Oral History Portal > Oral history interview with Cornelio Sommaruga, 2001.
Creator: | Sommaruga, Cornelio, 1932- | Project: | United Nations intellectual history project (UNIHP). (see all project interviews) | Phys. Desc. : | Transcript 74 pages Sound recording 2 digital audio tapes | Location: | Columbia Center for Oral History | Full CLIO record >> |
Biographical NotePast President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), President of the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining
Scope and ContentsEarly years: born and raised in Rome, Italy; student at Universities of Zurich, Paris, and Rome; student of public international law; captain in Swiss army; Career: 1960-1986 diplomat of the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs; state secretary for external economic affairs; 1969 deputy representative to UN Conference On Trade and Development (UNCTAD); Assistant-secretary-general of European Free Trade Association (EFTA); president of Economic Commission for Europe; 1987-1999 president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC); 2000 president of the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining and of the International Association Initiatives of Change; member of the High-level Panel on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations and of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty; Themes: third world and decolonization; Swiss neutrality; legal status of ICRC as UN observer; Swiss foreign policy and the cold war; economic advantages of Switzerland's membership in UN; Switzerland and the EU; free trade and economic integration; involvement in foreign trade for UN; General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT); efficacy of non-governmental organizations (NGOs); interaction between UN and parliamentarians; international humanitarian customary law; Bosnian genocide; research studies and academia; procedure for ICRC elections; global communication; priority of law and order in international community; globalization; involvement in Foundation for Moral Rearmament
SubjectsAccess ConditionsCopyright by the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, 2001
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