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Max van der Stoel (born August 3, 1924 in Voorschoten) is a Dutch politician and former Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs. He is also known as the first High Commissioner on National Minorities of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Career

Van der Stoel studied law at the Rijksuniversiteit Leiden. From 1953 to 1958 he worked for the Wiardi Beckmanstichting, the scientific bureau of the Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA) and become international secretary for the PvdA in 1963. From 1973 to 1977 and 1981 to 1982 he served as the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs.

He was appointed as the first High Commissioner on National Minorities of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in December 1992 and took up his functions in January 1993. He remained in office until 2000.

In that capacity he was able to intervene, in 1993, in the fragile new state of Estonia. The nationalist government had introduced measures disenfranchising a large part of the sizeable Russian minority. This in turn led the government of neighbouring Russia cut off gas supplies and to threaten to intervene, if necessary, to protect ethnic Russians.

Responding quickly, at the invitation of the Estonian government, the High Commissioner shuttled between both sides, securing agreements that removed a great deal of the tension and preserved Estonia's territorial integrity. The Economist noted that "Mr Van Der Stoel achieved something remarkable... a modicum of trust between would-be warring parties." It has been argued by peace-making bodies such as the Oxford Research Group that the situation could, without Van Der Stoel's personal involvement, have developed into something like the catastrophic collapse of the former Yugoslavia.

References

• Averting Inter-Ethnic Conflict: An Analysis of the CSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities in Estonia - (Google cache)
• NATIONAL MINORITY RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT IN EUROPE: A DIFFICULT BALANCING ACT

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