Former ICRC President Cornelio Sommaruga dies
Published: Monday, Feb 19th 2024, 17:50
Updated At: Monday, Feb 19th 2024, 17:50
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Cornelio Sommaruga, long-standing President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), has died in Geneva at the age of 91. The organization announced this on its blog on Monday. The Rome-born Swiss lawyer and diplomat led the ICRC from 1987 to the end of 1999.
The death of the former diplomat from Ticino has been confirmed by his son, Councillor of States Carlo Sommaruga (SP/GE). His father passed away during the night from Saturday to Sunday, Carlo Sommaruga told the Keystone-SDA news agency.
The ICRC paid tribute to its former president on Monday as a reformer who, among other things, abolished the requirement that delegates must also be Swiss citizens.
At the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency, President Viola Amherd explained on Monday that Sommaruga had long been the face of the ICRC. Through personalities such as Cornelio Sommaruga, Switzerland has earned its reputation as a country that promotes peace and democracy in the world. Amherd expressed her deepest condolences to the family and relatives.
Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis also expressed his condolences on X. Cornelio Sommaruga's commitment to international humanitarian law and Switzerland's economic relations would remain unforgettable.
Diplomat's son
Sommaruga, the son of a diplomat from Lugano, attended primary and secondary school in Rome and Lugano and completed his baccalaureate in the Italian capital. He studied in Rome, Paris and Zurich and graduated in 1957 with a doctorate in law from the University of Zurich. He initially worked in a bank. He then held several diplomatic posts in The Hague, Bonn and Rome until the end of 1968.
Sommaruga worked as Deputy Secretary General of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) in Geneva and was a member of the Directorate of the Federal Office for Foreign Economic Affairs, the predecessor of today's State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco). He then worked there as State Secretary from 1984 to 1986 before resigning in 1987 to become President of the ICRC.
World in upheaval
During his twelve years in office, Sommaruga and the ICRC experienced major historical upheavals such as the fall of the Berlin Wall and the associated collapse of the Soviet Union, which in turn led to the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc. A few years later, genocide took place in Rwanda. The number of ICRC missions increased significantly.
The murder of six Red Cross workers in Chechnya in December 1996 was the toughest test for Sommaruga as ICRC President. In order to better protect the staff of humanitarian organizations, he became even more committed to dialogue with the parties to the conflict.
Respecting the independence of the ICRC was particularly important to Sommaruga. He also urged his successor Jakob Kellenberger to do the same: the politicization of humanitarian work must be prevented at all costs.
Dialogue with the Jewish community
Sommaruga himself counted the resumption of dialog with the Jewish community among the successes of his time in office. At a commemorative event at the former Nazi extermination camp Auschwitz in 1995, the ICRC President regretted the "mistakes and omissions" of the ICRC during the murder of millions of Jews in the Holocaust.
Kellenberger replaced Cornelio Sommaruga as ICRC President on January 1, 2000. After his departure from the organization, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed the Ticino native to a team of experts that drew up a critical report on the UN's peace missions. From May 2000, Sommaruga was also President of the International Center for Humanitarian Demining (CIDHG) in Geneva.
Sommaruga remained active into old age, both as President of the Karl Popper Foundation in Zug and as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Open Society Institute in Budapest. In 2002, he became President of the International Association of Initiatives of Change near Montreux VD. He was also on the initiative committee for the Responsible Business Initiative.
Sommaruga, who was awarded a number of prizes for his diplomatic and humanitarian work, lived in Geneva and was the father of six children. The deceased was also related to former Federal Councillor Simonetta Sommaruga.
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