Catalan diplomat Francesc Vendrell dies at 82

The Catalan diplomat Francesc Vendrell has died this weekend in London at the age of 82.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
27 November 2022 Sunday 16:32
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Catalan diplomat Francesc Vendrell dies at 82

The Catalan diplomat Francesc Vendrell has died this weekend in London at the age of 82. Born in 1940, he had worked at the UN in the office of the secretary general for political affairs in Asia, the Pacific, the Americas and Europe and, later, he was the delegate of the European Union precisely to the United Nations, a position currently held by the Swedish Olof Skoog .

Trained in Law at the University of Barcelona (UB) and in Modern History at the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom), he was director of the Academy of International Law in The Hague (Netherlands). In 2002 he received the Creu de Sant Jordi in recognition of his human career and his work for people's rights.

The President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, has lamented the death of Francesc Vendrell on Twitter. He has highlighted the facet of Vendrell as a "tireless worker for peace and freedom", whom he has considered a "Catalan benchmark throughout the world".

The former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont has also published a message of condolences in which he stressed that the diplomat was "an exemplary professional and a person of great humanity and profound Catalan identity".