Oral history interview with Cornelio Sommaruga, 2001.

Biographical Note

Past President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), President of the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining

Scope and Contents

Early 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

Subjects

• Cold War.
• Decolonization.
• European Union--Switzerland.
• General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Organization)
• Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining.
• International Committee of the Red Cross.
• International organization.
• Interviews.
• Neutrality--Switzerland.
• Non-governmental organizations.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Sommaruga, Cornelio, 1932---Interviews.
• Switzerland--Foreign relations--1945-
• United Nations--History.
• United Nations--Officials and employees--Interviews.
• Weiss, Thomas G. (Thomas George), 1946- interviewer.--http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ivr
• Yugoslav War, 1991-1995--Atrocities--Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Access Conditions

Copyright by the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, 2001