Cornelio Sommaruga
Encyclopedia
Humanitarianism
In its most general form, humanitarianism is an ethic of kindness, benevolence and sympathy extended universally and impartially to all human beings. Humanitarianism has been an evolving concept historically but universality is a common element in its evolution...
, lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
and diplomat
Diplomacy
Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...
who is best known for being President of the International Committee of the Red Cross
International Committee of the Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross is a private humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland. States parties to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005, have given the ICRC a mandate to protect the victims of international and...
(ICRC) from 1987 to 1999. Today, he chairs the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
. He is also active on a number of boards, such as the International Union Against Cancer
International Union Against Cancer
The International Union Against Cancer, or UICC is the only non-governmental organization dedicated exclusively to the global control of cancer. Its vision is of a world where cancer is eliminated as a major life-threatening disease for future generations...
. Currently he is Chair of the Board of Directors of the Foundation For the Future, a group dedicated to promoting human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
in the middle east and Africa, and the honorary President
Title of honor
An honorary title or title of honor is a title bestowed upon individuals or organizations as an award in recognition of their merits.Sometimes the title bears the same or nearly the same name as a title of authority, but the person bestowed does not have to carry any duties, possibly except for...
of Initiatives of Change International
Initiatives of Change
Initiatives of Change is a global organization dedicated to "building trust across the world's divides" of culture, nationality, belief, and background...
, a global organization dedicated to "building trust across the world's divides" of culture, nationality, belief, and background.
Early years and education
Cornelio Sommaruga was born in Rome, ItalyItaly
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, where his father had a professional activity as a commercial lawyer and was stationed during WWII at the Swiss embassy responsible for foreign interests. In fact, he spoke Italian long before he learned German. He was brought up by Catholic parents and remained a devout Christian throughout his life. He was profoundly influenced by his early years in Rome. The period in which his father represented Liberia
Liberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
at the Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
probably inspired him the most in terms of his long diplomatic and humanitarian career. Despite his connection to Rome, he has close ties with Ticino
Ticino
Canton Ticino or Ticino is the southernmost canton of Switzerland. Named after the Ticino river, it is the only canton in which Italian is the sole official language...
, his family's canton of origin.
He went to grammar and high school in Italy and attended university in Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, Switzerland, where he obtained a doctorate in law in 1957. It was only during this period that he learned German, one of the four national languages of Switzerland.
Professional career
Cornelio Sommaruga entered the Swiss diplomatic corps after working two years in the banking sector from 1957 to 1959. He served as a diplomat in The HagueThe Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
, Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, Geneva and Bern. From 1968 to 1973, he was the deputy of the Swiss delegation to the European Free Trade Association
European Free Trade Association
The European Free Trade Association or EFTA is a free trade organisation between four European countries that operates parallel to, and is linked to, the European Union . EFTA was established on 3 May 1960 as a trade bloc-alternative for European states who were either unable to, or chose not to,...
(EFTA) and the senior representative to United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development was established in 1964 as a permanent intergovernmental body. It is the principal organ of the United Nations General Assembly dealing with trade, investment, and development issues....
, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was negotiated during the UN Conference on Trade and Employment and was the outcome of the failure of negotiating governments to create the International Trade Organization . GATT was signed in 1947 and lasted until 1993, when it was replaced by the World...
(GATT) and the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE), where he further developed his diplomatic and negotiating skills. From 1973 to 1975, he served as the deputy to the Secretary General of EFTA in Geneva. From there, he returned to Bern where he held senior posts at the Office of Foreign Affairs of the Swiss government, i.a. as Ambassador, Delegate for Trade Agreements. From 1984 to 1987, he was Undersecretary of State at the Office of Foreign Economic Affairs, a job he left when he was nominated to the International Committee of the Red Cross
International Committee of the Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross is a private humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland. States parties to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005, have given the ICRC a mandate to protect the victims of international and...
(ICRC) in 1986.
Cornelio Sommaruga served as President of the ICRC from 1987 to 1999, succeeding Alexandre Hay
Alexandre Hay
Alexandre Hay was a Swiss lawyer. From 1966 to 1976 he was Vice President of the Board of the Swiss National Bank. Later, from 1976 to 1987 he was President of the International Committee of the Red Cross ....
. During his tenure, the budget and the international activities of the Committee increased considerably. He maintained the neutrality of the ICRC while keeping close ties to all governments of States signatories of the Geneva conventions. One of his initiatives was to propose in 1992 the introduction of the a new additional Red Crystal symbol symbol representing the Red Cross movement
Emblems of the Red Cross
The emblems of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, under the Geneva Conventions, are to be placed on humanitarian and medical vehicles and buildings to protect them from military attack on the battlefield. There are four such emblems, three of which are in use: the Red Cross,...
, alongside with the Red Cross and Red Crescent.
Among his challenges at the ICRC were:
- bringing the ICRC in tune with the younger generation of delegates to reduce the defections which plagued the ICRC when he took over as President
- the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War
- the genocide in RwandaRwandan GenocideThe Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass murder of an estimated 800,000 people in the small East African nation of Rwanda. Over the course of approximately 100 days through mid-July, over 500,000 people were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate...
in 1994 - the killing of six delegates of the ICRC in Grosny in December 1996
- the debate within the ICRC of the role of the Red Cross in World War II and the issue of the HolocaustThe HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
Sommaruga was the founding President in April, 2002 of Initiatives of Change International http://www.iofc.org/iofc-international-governance, a voluntary association of independent national legal bodies of Initiatives of Change
Initiatives of Change
Initiatives of Change is a global organization dedicated to "building trust across the world's divides" of culture, nationality, belief, and background...
(IofC). As head of this international movement working to build bridges of trust across the world's divides, he was able to support peace and reconciliation initiatives in Africa's Great Lakes region and in Sierra Leone. He continues to serve on a number of charitable and corporate boards.
Controversy
Israel refused to cooperate with a team appointed by United Nations General Secretary Kofi Annan in 2002 to investigate allegations of a massacre in Jenin, partly because Cornelio Sommaruga was personally unacceptable to the Israeli government, due to allegations that he had made a remark comparing the possibility of ICRCInternational Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is an international humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide which was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and to prevent and alleviate human...
official recognition of the Red Star of David emblem (Magen David Adom
Magen David Adom
The Magen David Adom is Israel's national emergency medical, disaster, ambulance and blood bank service. The name means "Red Star of David"...
, see Emblems of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement) to recognition of a "Red Swastika".
Family life
Despite an intense political and management career, Cornelio Sommaruga maintained strong family ties. Family gatherings were extremely meaningful to him in his early years, and as a result, Dr. Sommaruga has promoted strong family social values among his family just as in the institutions with which he worked. He married Ornella Marzorati in 1957 and he and his wife have six children. He and his family have preserved the ritual of annual family reunions at the same time each year, gathering their children and 16 grandchildren.Awards
- Personalité suisse la plus populaire auprès des journalistes étrangers, Association de la Presse Etrangère en Suisse, 2003
- Prix de la Fondation Dr. J.E. Brandenberger, 2003
- North-South PrizeNorth-South PrizeThe North–South Prize is awarded annually by the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe to two public figures who are recognised for their deep commitment, outstanding achievements and hope they have generated in the field of protection of human rights, the defence of pluralist democracy and...
, Council of Europe, 2001 - Culture, Canton of Basel-land, 1998
- International Society for Human Rights, Swiss section, 1996
- Josef Krainer, Graz, 1996
- Century Foundation, BSI, 1995
- Dr. Jean Mayer Award for Global Citizenship, Tufts University
+ seven Honorary Doctorates
External links
- Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement History - Cornelio Sommaruga
- Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining - Dr. Cornelio Sommaruga
- Legacy Dr. Sommaruga donated four hours of high-definition audiovisual life story interviews to Legacy.