Presidency of The International Committee of The Red Cross (ICRC)
On 1 January 2010, Jakob Kellenberger was appointed president of the ICRC, a humanitarian organization that, as of July 2011, has some 13,000 staff and a network of over 200 delegations. The scope of the ICRC's operations expanded considerably during his term in office.
The ICRC's large-scale operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan and the Near East had and partly still have a particular impact on Jakob Kellenberger's job, as also reflected by his field visits and efforts in the sphere of humanitarian diplomacy. Kellenberger made a decisive contribution towards more intensive cooperation in several spheres between the ICRC and the European Union and its member States. Managing the ICRC's relationship with the United States after the September 11 attacks in the areas of law and humanitarian diplomacy was one of his greatest challenges. In difficult conflict situations, he considered it important to get first-hand experience of the reality on the ground, as witnessed by his trips to southern Lebanon during the war of summer 2006 and to Gaza in January 2009, and his numerous visits to Afghanistan and Darfur.
He stated on April 5, 2007 that the United States has inadequate procedures to guarantee the human rights of foreign detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. He demanded a "more robust" system to determine whether to release hundreds of men who probably will never face trial.
Jakob Kellenberger set great store by a clear strategy for the organization and the adoption of clear positions in a rapidly changing environment. He made a major contribution to achieving those goals.
Jakob Kellenberger lectures at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the University of Salamanca.
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