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Congratulations to Peter Maurer for the Honorary Doctorate
The Institute for European Global Studies congratulates Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, for the Honorary Doctorate. The certificate was awarded on November 28, 2014, during the 554th Dies Academicus of the University of Basel.
The Honorary Doctorate was awarded to Dr. Peter Maurer by the Faculty of Law of the University of Basel. Dr. Peter Maurer, former head of the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the UN Office in New York and later state secretary of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, has been president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) since 2012. He significantly contributed to the consolidation of the human rights and gave Switzerland a voice in this process. In addition, he was involved in establishing the UN Human Rights Council and thus strengthened the rights of people in need worldwide.
At the ceremony, further Honorary Doctorates were awarded to the Bosnian author and literary scholar Dževad Karahasan, Actelion co-founder Walter Fischli, congress organizer Beat Löffler, as well as to three US scholars: psychologist Terrie E. Moffitt, theologian Thomas Troeger and economist Laurence Korlikoff. In addition, a number of other awards were bestowed on early career researchers for their outstanding works.
Rector Antonio Loprieno held the Dies speech with the German title "Von offener Universität". Following the ceremony, the Rector and the Master of the Academic Guild invited their guests to the traditional banquet at the Stadtcasino.
A few days before, on November 17, Peter Maurer presented a lecture on the topic "Global Networks to Solve Local Problems – the Example of the ICRC" at the University of Basel. The event was organized by the Institute for European Global Studies, which cooperates with the ICRC. The cooperation facilitates the work of researchers from the University of Basel by granting them easier access to the ICRC’s archives. In reverse, the university points its students and academic partners to the rich resources, libraries and research tools of the ICRC. The Institute for European Global Studies and the ICRC’s Division of Archives and Information Management will work towards the realization of the agreements’ aims.