Jean Pictet
Jean Pictet
is a Swiss citizen born in Geneva in 1914, graduated Doctor
in Law from the University of Geneva in 1955. He joined the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 1937 as
secretary-jurist, in order to prepare the revision of the
1929 Geneva Conventions.
During the Second World
War, he was one of the senior officers in the ICRC and
the right-hand man of the President Max Huber. Jean
Pictet was appointed Director in 1946 and Director General
in 1966. He has been a member of the ICRC Executive
Committee from 1967 to 1979 and Vice-President from
1971 to 1979.
After the Second World
War, he took charge of the preparatory work leading
to the adoption, in 1949, of the four Geneva Conventions
for the protection of victims of war. He took an important
part, as an expert, in the works of the 1949 Diplomatic
Conference. He was in charge of compiling the ICRC General
Report on its activities during the Second World War.
On behalf of the ICRC, he conducted the works and negotiations
which resulted in the revision of the Statutes of the
International Red Cross, in 1952, and of the Agreements
with the League of Red Cross Societies. He also presided
over the experts Conferences in charge of the negotiation
of the two 1977 Additionnal Protocols to Geneva Conventions.
His
book on Fundamental Principles laid the foundation for the
basic Charter of the Movement, adopted in 1965 by the XXth
International Conference of the Red Cross. He was the general-editor
of the four-volume Commentary on the 1949 Geneva Conventions
and the 1977 Additionnal Protocols. He also wrote many articles
and books on international humanitarian law and American Indians.
Jean
Pictet has been appointed to a lecturship in Geneva University,
and taught international humanitarian law in the Faculty of
Law from 1974 to 1979. He also gave courses in the Academy
of International Law in the Hague (1950) and in the International
Institute of Human Rights (1971, 1972, 1982). From 1975 to
1981, he was Director and later President of the Henry-Dunant
Institute, Center of research and training of the International
Red Cross.
Jean Pictet has received several academical distinctions,
(honorary Doctorate in Law of Universities of Leyden, Zurich
and the Catholic University of Louvain), as well as several
Red Cross awards (ICRC rules prohibiting the acceptance of
other distinctions).
Jean Pictet passed away on 30 March 2002.
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