Hans Corell, Representative of the
Secretary-General to the International Criminal Court Conference

Mr. Hans Corell, UN Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and Legal Counsel, is the Secretary-General's Special Representative to the United Nations Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court, to be held in Rome from 15 June to 17 July. In this capacity, Mr. Corell is head of the secretariat servicing the conference and is responsible for the organization of the Rome meeting.

Before joining the United Nations in 1994, Mr. Corell, a national of Sweden, was Under-Secretary for Legal and Consular Affairs in his country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1984 to 1994. He spent 22 years in the Ministry of Justice, in the capacity of Under-Secretary for Legal Affairs (1981-1984), Assistant Under-Secretary (1979-1981), and Legal Adviser (in 1972 and from 1974 to 1979).

Interspersed with his service in the Ministry of Justice, Mr. Corell served as an additional Member of the Svea Court of Appeal (1973), as Associate Judge of Appeal (1974), and as Judge of Appeal (1980).

Mr. Corell was a member of his country's delegation at the United Nations General Assembly from 1985 until he took his current UN appointment in 1994. In addition, Mr. Corell was a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague from 1990. He has also been a member of various expert committees in his country, within the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), including the CSCE Moscow Human Dimension Mechanism to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia (1992-1993). He was Chairman of the Working Group at the 1992 CSCE Expert Meeting on Peaceful Settlement of Disputes, held in Geneva.

Mr. Corell holds board memberships in several Swedish legal societies and is the author of many publications, including "The European Convention on Human Rights: Swedish Experiences -- Thoughts for the Future", which appeared in Studies in International Law, "Legal Advisers Meet at United Nations Headquarters", and "Third Legal Advisers Meeting at United Nations Headquarters in New York", both published in the American Journal of International Law.

Born in Vastermo, Sweden, on 7 July 1939, Mr. Corell received a Law degree at the University of Uppsala. He began his career in 1962 as a court clerk, later becoming a presiding judge in petty criminal cases and then an Assistant Judge in a district court, before entering the Ministry of Justice.

Prepared by the United Nations Department of Public Information
May 1998