ICRC names new president
At its meeting October, the Assembly of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the organization's governing body, appointed Peter Maurer as the ICRC's next president.
Mr Maurer succeeds Jakob Kellenberger, the ICRC president since 2000, who expressed the wish to retire at the end of his third term as head of the organization. The incoming president will take up his responsibilities on 1 July 2012 for a renewable four-year term.
Mr Maurer is currently Switzerland's State secretary for foreign affairs, a position he has held since January 2010. In this position, he directs the activities of the Swiss diplomatic service at its Berne headquarters and in its approximately 150 embassies and other diplomatic missions around the world.
Mr Kellenberger will be leaving after three terms in office. He will have served as president from 1 January 2000 to 30 June 2012, a period during which the nature of armed conflict changed significantly and the ICRC had to adapt its activities accordingly.
