- Jakob Kellenberger
Jakob Kellenberger (born
October 19 ,1944 in Heiden,Switzerland ) is a former Swiss diplomat and the president of theInternational Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). He studied French and Spanish literature as well as linguistics inZürich ,Tours andGranada and gained a doctorate from theUniversity of Zürich . Later, he was also awarded an honorary doctorate from theUniversity of Basel .In 1974, he started his diplomatic career with a position in the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. From 1975 until 1984, he served in several diplomatic positions in
Madrid ,Brussels andLondon . He then returned to Switzerland to lead the Integration Office, a joint institution of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and theFederal Department of Economic Affairs responsible for Switzerland's relations with theEuropean Union and theEuropean Free Trade Association . From 1989 to 1998 he was the head of several Swiss delegations in official negotiations with the European Union [ICRC. 1 Jan 2006. [http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/iwpList130/7E5E278EF1210535C1256BF0002216D8 ICRC presidency] .] .On
August 27 ,1998 he became president of the ICRC. He assumed the office in the beginning of the year 2000 after Sommaruga left at the end of 1999. Kellenberger tends to shun the public spotlight more than his predecessor, but he seems comfortable with the dynamics of the ICRC Assembly and is a skilled personal negotiator as evidenced by his work with the E.U. [ David P Forsythe. "The Humanitarians: The International Committee of the Red Cross". New York: Cambridge, 2005. 219.] He stated onApril 5 ,2007 that theUnited States has inadequate procedures to guarantee the human rights of foreign detainees at theGuantanamo Bay detention camp inCuba . He demanded a "more robust" system to determine whether to release hundreds of men who probably will never face trial. [Washington Post. 5 Apr 2007. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/05/AR2007040501950.html?nav=rss_politics ICRC Chief Faults Rights Protection at Guantanamo] .]Literature
* Jakob Kellenberger: "International Humanitarian Law and Other Legal Regimes: Interplay in Situations of Violence." In: "International Review of the Red Cross." 851/2003. ICRC, S. 645-653, ISSN 1560-7755
References
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