Jakob Kellenberger

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jakob Kellenberger, 2010
Jakob Kellenberger, 2003

Jakob Kellenberger (born October 19, 1944 in Heiden in the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden ) is a Swiss diplomat . He joined the Swiss diplomatic service in 1974 and has held various posts within Europe. As chief negotiator in his home country, he led Switzerland's negotiations with the European Union on the Bilateral Agreements I between Switzerland and the EU . From 2000 to 2012 he was President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). He has been President of swisspeace since 2013 .

Life

Jakob Kellenberger was born in Heiden in the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden in 1944, but is a citizen of the canton of Walzenhausen . He spent a large part of his youth in Arbon on Lake Constance, where his father worked as a freelance photographer. He studied French and Spanish literature as well as linguistics in Zurich , Tours and Granada , and completed his studies with a doctorate from the University of Zurich . In 1974 he began working for the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). From 1975 to 1976 he was attaché for the Swiss Embassy in Madrid , then from 1976 to 1981 he was Secretary of the Embassy at the Swiss Mission to the European Communities (EC) in Brussels . He then worked for the Swiss Embassy in London until 1984.

From 1984 to 1992 he headed the Swiss Integration Office , a joint agency of the FDFA and the Federal Department of Economic Affairs (FDEA), which is responsible for Switzerland's relations with the EU and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). In 1992 he was promoted to State Secretary and Head of the Political Directorate of the FDFA. From 1989 to 1991 he was Switzerland's chief negotiator in transit negotiations with the EC, and between 1994 and 1998 he headed the Swiss delegation in bilateral negotiations with the European Union .

Kellenberger has been a columnist for the SonntagsZeitung since September 2012 . He writes on international, European and humanitarian issues. He has also been a member of the Board of the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue since 2012 . In May 2013 Kellenberger was supported by the Swiss Peace Foundation Swiss Peace on 10 September 2013 as the new Board of Trustees President elected.

Kellenberger has been married to Elisabeth Kellenberger-Jossi since he was a student. They have two daughters together.

ICRC presidency

On August 27, 1998, he was elected to succeed Cornelio Sommaruga as President of the International Committee of the Red Cross . After Sommaruga left at the end of 1999, he took over the post at the beginning of the following year. Shortly after he began his term in office, on April 26, 2001, six ICRC employees were murdered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo . Like his predecessor, Kellenberger was confronted with the challenge of a loss of authority for the ICRC, especially in domestic conflicts, which began with the global political upheavals since 1990.

Between 2003 and 2005, he met several times in confidential talks with US President George W. Bush , US Secretary of State Colin Powell , US Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice , US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz about the treatment of prisoners in the Abu Ghuraib Prison in Iraq and the Camp X-Ray prison camp in the US military base at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba.

During his term of office, the third additional protocol to the Geneva Conventions was passed in December 2005 and the red crystal was adopted as the third protective symbol alongside the Red Cross and the Red Crescent. Although Kellenberger had advocated an amicable solution both in his speech on December 5, 2005 at the opening of the corresponding diplomatic conference in Geneva and in a further call for agreement two days later, this decision was not made by consensus. Due to differences between Israel and Syria, which could not be resolved despite a compromise offer by the ICRC to Syria, the protocol was adopted in a vote with 98 for and 27 against, with 10 abstentions.

In February 2007, Jakob Kellenberger was confirmed by the ICRC assembly for a further four-year term. In October 2011, the meeting of the committee elected the diplomat and State Secretary in the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs Peter Maurer as his successor. On June 1, 2012, Peter Maurer took over from Jakob Kellenberger.

honors and awards

literature

  • Curt Gasteyer, Hansrudolf Hoffmann, Jakob Kellenberger, Rene Rhinow (eds.): Swiss security policy in the international environment. Helbing & Lichtenhahn Verlag AG, Basel 1995, ISBN 3-71-901426-6
  • Jakob Kellenberger: International Humanitarian Law and Other Legal Regimes: Interplay in Situations of Violence. In: International Review of the Red Cross. 851/2003. ICRC, pp. 645-653, ISSN  1560-7755
  • Jakob Kellenberger: Speeches and silence in humanitarian work. In: Humanitarian international law - information documents. 1/2005, DRK General Secretariat and Institute for Peacekeeping Law and International Humanitarian Law, pp. 42–49, ISSN  0937-5414
  • Jakob Kellenberger: Humanitarian Aid: We have the will to learn from mistakes. In: construction . The Jewish monthly magazine. 2/2005, Jüdische Medien AG, pp. 10-13, ISSN  0004-7813
  • Hansjörg Erny : Jakob Kellenberger: Diplomat and ICRC President . Zytglogge, Oberhofen am Thunersee 2006, ISBN 978-3-7296-0720-0
  • Jakob Kellenberger: Humanitarian international law . Verlag Huber, Frauenthal 2010, ISBN 978-3-7193-1444-6

Web links

Commons : Jakob Kellenberger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jakob Kellenberger becomes a columnist. In: Tages-Anzeiger .ch / Newsnet from August 31, 2012
  2. ↑ sda: Kellenberger at the helm of Swisspeace. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of May 21, 2013
  3. ↑ Top diplomat Maurer becomes the new ICRC president. In: NZZ Online from October 19, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Kellenberger, Jakob
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Walzenhausen