Léopold Boissier

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Léopold Boissier (born July 16, 1893 in Geneva ; † October 22, 1968 there ) was a Swiss lawyer and diplomat. From 1933 to 1953 he was Secretary General of the Interparliamentary Union and from 1955 to 1964 President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). He also worked as a professor of constitutional law at the University of Geneva.

Life

Leopold Boissier

Léopold Boissier was born in Geneva in 1893 . Since father was an agronomist and cavalry colonel in the Swiss army . He studied law in Zurich and Geneva and completed his studies with a doctorate at the University of Geneva . In 1918 he began to work for the Federal Political Department . During the peace conference of 1919 he was private secretary of the then President of the ICRC Gustave Ador . Other stations in his diplomatic career included Bern , Rome and London . From 1921 he initially acted as secretary, from 1933 to 1953 as general secretary of the Interparliamentary Union. Until the dissolution of the League of Nations , he headed its Swiss delegation. He had about further management positions at the Association of International Organizations in Geneva (Engl. Addition Federation of International Organizations ) and the Swiss Peace Council held.

From 1936 he was a lecturer, from 1943 Associate Professor and from 1955 Full Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Geneva . He also worked as editor of the journal L'Anneé politique and was a corresponding member of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques and the Institut international de droit public .

Léopold Boissier was married to Renée E. Grand d'Hauteville. He was killed in a riding accident in 1968.

ICRC presidency

In 1946 he became a member of the International Committee of the Red Cross. He was thus part of a generation change within the ICRC after the Second World War . Of the 20 members immediately after the war, only nine were on the committee before the war began. With his membership he succeeded his father, the cavalry colonel Edmond Boissier, who had also served as a member and vice-chairman of the committee. In February 1955 he was elected President of the Committee and took office on September 1 of the same year as the successor to Paul Ruegger .

During his time as ICRC president, among other things, the committee intervened in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. The committee's intervention itself had only a minor influence on the settlement of the crisis. However, Fidel Castro's refusal to allow ICRC controls in Cuba helped accelerate bilateral agreement between the superpowers involved in the conflict.

In March and April 1963, at the invitation of the German Red Cross of the GDR, he visited Dresden and Berlin, among others, and was received by Walter Ulbricht during this visit . On December 10th of the same year he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the International Committee of the Red Cross together with John Alexander MacAulay , then Chairman of the League of Red Cross Societies . The prize was awarded to both organizations on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Red Cross movement.

On October 1, 1964, he resigned at his own request. Samuel Gonard had already been elected as his successor in September .

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Boissier, Léopold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss lawyer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross
DATE OF BIRTH July 16, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Geneva
DATE OF DEATH October 22, 1968
Place of death Geneva