Alexandre Hay

Alexandre Hay

Alexandre Hay (born October 29, 1919 in Bern , † August 23, 1991 in Geneva ) was a Swiss lawyer . From 1966 to 1976 he was Vice President of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank . He then became President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from 1976 to 1987 .

Life

Hay was born on October 29, 1919 as the son of Frédérik and Lydia Hay-Trachsler in Bern. Hay spent most of his youth in the politically tense pre-war climate in Geneva. There he studied law at the Collège de Genève and passed the bar exam in 1944. From 1942 to 1945 he worked as a lawyer in Geneva.

In 1945 Hay began to work for the diplomatic service of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) in Paris, a year later he was promoted to attaché de légation, and in 1948 to legation secretary 2nd class. In this role he was responsible for economic and financial issues in Paris.

In 1952, Hay was proposed to the Executive Committee of the European Payments Union . A year later he moved to the Zurich branch of the Swiss National Bank as a department head. From 1955 to 1966 he was director and assistant to the head of the second department of the bank in Bern. From 1966 to 1976 he was Vice President and General Director of the Board of Directors on the bank's board of directors.

Hay was married in 1945 to the French Hélène Morin, with whom he had two sons and two daughters. After the death of his wife in 1973, he married Verena Vogler for the second time in 1980.

ICRC presidency

In 1975 Hay became a member of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). A year later he took over from Eric Martin as President of the Committee on July 1, 1976 . Like Martin, he shared management responsibility with Roger Gallopin , President of the Assembly Council, until the end of the year , before he also took on this role. This ended the unusual de facto double presidency that began with the separation of these two positions through the election of Martin and Gallopin in 1973.

During his eleven-year presidency, the ICRC's budget rose from 50 million to 250 million Swiss francs, and the number of staff and delegates tripled. This development is largely due to the fact that the number and duration of armed conflicts increased steadily during this period. The work of the ICRC was made more difficult by the fact that war practices were increasingly being used that contradicted the Geneva Conventions and other provisions of international humanitarian law .

During his term of office, 250,000 refugees were evacuated from Cambodia to Thailand in 1984. Looking back, during the time of his presidency, Hay also noted increasing differences between the commitments made by the states involved in the conflict and their actual actions. This includes, for example, the use of chemical weapons in the war between Iran and Iraq from 1980 to 1988, even though both states were parties to the Geneva Protocol of 1925 on the prohibition of the use of such weapons. Repeated protests in this regard by Hay did not lead to any significant results.

During his work, Hay advocated an open information policy for the ICRC in order to contribute to the dissemination of international humanitarian law. Another peculiarity of his work was a particularly pronounced interest in good contacts with the national Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which was expressed above all in lively travel and visiting activities.

His successor in the office of ICRC President was Cornelio Sommaruga , who took office in May 1987. Hay remained a member of the ICRC until 1989 and took on a few missions for the committee during this time.

Awards

• Honorary doctorate from the University of St. Gallen
• Honorary doctorate from the University of Geneva
• Companion of the Order of Australia 1990

literature

• Georges-André Chevallaz, Alexandre Hay, Gaston Gaudard: Helvetische Perspektiven: 1291–1991. Ed. Libertas, Biel 1989
• Alexandre Hay: The Activity of the OCDE. Association of Swiss Holding and Finance Companies, Zurich 1962
• Caroline Moorehead: Dunant's dream: War, Switzerland and the history of the Red Cross. HarperCollins, London 1998, ISBN 0-00-255141-1 (hardcover); HarperCollins, London 1999, ISBN 0-00-638883-3 (paperback edition)
• International Review of the Red Cross: Under the presidency of Mr. Hay - The ICRC from 1976 to 1987: Controlled expansion. Geneva 1987 ( PDF file; 4.16 MB )
• Cornelio Sommaruga : Tribute to Alexandre Hay. , In: International Review of the Red Cross. Geneva 1991 ( PDF file; 4.62 MB )

Web links

• Marc Perrenoud: Hay, Alexandre. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement History - Alexandre Hay (Engl.)

• Documents by and about Alexandre Hay in the Dodis database of Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland