The ICRC’s
new Director General
His eyes narrow, giving nothing away as he studies the person
facing him; it’s the hands
that express his personality. Alternating between Italian
volubility and military imperiousness, they outline concepts,
brush aside counter-arguments, and give shape to grandiose
plans. Could the beard, like a Swiss Guard’s at the
Vatican, be false? No indeed: it’s as genuine as the
man himself. Paul Grossrieder is a blend of restrained joviality,
single-minded tenacity and contagious dynamism - the ideal
person to be Director General of the International Committee
of the Red Cross.
Paul Calybite Grossrieder was born in Charmey, Switzerland
in 1944. He was educated at the Collège Saint-Michel
in the city of Fribourg. After leaving school with a diploma
in classics, he joined the Dominican order and earned his
degree in philosophy at La Sarte in Belgium in 1967.
As a Dominican friar, he obtained his degree in theology
from the University of Fribourg. Subsequently, the Dominicans
sent him to be the assistant priest of the parish of St Paul
in Geneva in 1970. He accepted the post on condition that
he could enrol at the Graduate Institute of International
Studies, where he received his diploma in political science
four years later and began working on his doctorate.
Grossrieder chose the Holy See and sub-Saharan Africa at
the end of the 19th century as the subject for his doctoral
thesis. He worked in the Vatican archives researching his
thesis for six months, when he was called to the Vatican’s
Ministry of Foreign Affairs to serve as an adviser. He also
wrote for the newspaper Osservatore Romano from 1976 to 1978,
and completed his doctorate in 1983.
He then left the Dominican Order and considered for a while
becoming a journalist based in Rome after receiving his doctorate,
but in the end he applied for a post at the ICRC. Thinking
he was too old (39), the organization initially turned him
down. His application was rescued after someone learned of
his unusual career path. His first assignment was in Baghdad
in 1984.
In 1985, he was promoted to Deputy Head of Delegation in
Angola. He then became a desk officer within the Africa zone,
Head of Delegation in Israel in 1986, Deputy Delegate General
for Asia in 1989, Delegate General for Asia a year later,
and finally, in 1990, Deputy Director of Operations, the ICRC’s
flagship department.
Last May, Paul Grossrieder was appointed to the newly created
post of Director General. This was a godsend for an institution
plagued by excessive compartmentalization. Grossrieder explains:
“I’m almost pathologically attached to Operations!”
— the department that works directly for the victims
of conflicts, and keeps strategy firmly grounded in reality.
Serge Bimpage
This text was adapted from an article which appeared in La
Tribune de Genève on
18 June 1998.
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