President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) since July 2012. Previously, he served as Secretary of State for foreign affairs in Bern (2010-2012). He was chairman of the Fifth Committee of the UN General Assembly, in charge of administrative and budgetary affairs (2009-2010), Ambassador and permanent representative of Switzerland to the United Nations in New York (2004-2009) and ambassador and head of the human security division in the political directorate of the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs in Bern (2000-2004). He entered the Swiss diplomatic service in 1987. He studied history and international law in Bern, where he was awarded a doctorate.
For a reasonably open world
