At 91: Ex-ICRC President Cornelio Sommaruga dies

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According to the ICRC, the man from Ticino died on Sunday. The organization praised the former president as a reformer, who, among other things, lifted the requirement that delegates must also be Swiss citizens.

Sommaruga studied in Rome, Paris and Zurich, among others, and completed his studies in 1957 with a doctorate in law from the University of Zurich.

Experienced major historical upheavals

Until the end of 1968 he held diplomatic posts in The Hague, Bonn and Rome. Sommaruga worked as Deputy Secretary General of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) in Geneva and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Office for Foreign Trade, the predecessor of the current State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco). He then worked there from 1984 to 1986 as Secretary of State before resigning in 1987 to become President of the ICRC.

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 resulted in the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc. A few years later the genocide took place in Rwanda. The number of ICRC missions increased significantly and several ICRC delegates also died during operations.

Self-critical tones

One of the successes of his term was Sommaruga’s renewed dialogue with the Jewish community. At a memorial meeting at the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz in 1995, the ICRC president lamented the ICRC’s “errors and omissions” during the murder of millions of Jews in the Holocaust.

Jakob Kellenberger replaced Cornelio Sommaruga as President of the ICRC on January 1, 2000. Sommaruga, who has received a number of awards for his diplomatic and humanitarian work, including several honorary doctorates, is the father of Geneva SP Council of States Carlo Sommaruga. (SDA)

Source:Blick