Cornelio Sommaruga

Cornelio Sommaruga (born December 29, 1932 in Rome) is a prominent Swiss humanitarian, lawyer and diplomat who is best known for being President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from 1987 to 1999. Today, he chairs the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) in Geneva. He is also active on a number of boards, such as the International Union Against Cancer. Currently he is Chair of the Board of Directors of the Foundation For the Future, an organization dedicated to promoting human rights in the Middle East and North Africa, and the honorary President of Initiatives of Change International, a global organization dedicated to "building trust across the world's divides" of culture, nationality, belief, and background.

Cornelio Sommaruga was born in Rome, Italy, 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 at the Vatican 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, his family's canton of origin.

He went to grammar and high school in Italy and attended university in 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.

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