SECRETARY-GENERAL SADDENED AT DEATH OF PROFESSOR LOUIS SOHN, IMPORTANT FIGURE

IN HISTORY OF UNITED NATIONS, INTERNATIONAL LAW

 

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan:

The Secretary-General was sad to learn of the death of Professor Louis B. Sohn, an important figure in the history of the United Nations and of international law.  Louis Sohn, who served as Professor of Law at Harvard and the University of Georgia, was a member of the United States delegation at the San Francisco conference in 1945, at which the United Nations Charter was drawn up, and also, from 1974 to 1982, at the conference which drafted the International Convention on the Law of the Sea.  Throughout his life, he won wide respect as a voice of reason and source of wisdom, and was a firm believer in the importance of the United Nations and of the rule of law in settling international disputes.

The Secretary-General extends his deepest condolences to Professor Sohn’s family, and to the Government and people of the United States.

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For information media • not an official record