Alfaro, Ricardo Joaquin

In 1904 he graduated from the University of Cartagena in Cartagena , worked in various specialties: railway worker, secretary, orderly and translator, and an employee of the theater and newspaper. In addition to law and political science, for which he received his doctorate from the National Law School of the Republic of Panama in 1918, he studied linguistics and literature, and later he was also engaged in literary work, being the author of historical works.

In 1905 he entered the diplomatic service. In 1908 he was appointed Consul General in Barcelona. In 1912 - legal adviser to the Embassy of Panama in Washington; He was responsible for legal issues during the Panama -Costa Rican dispute over the construction of the Panama Canal , and was also involved in resolving numerous unresolved situations arising from the construction of the canal.

He worked as a professor of civil and international law at several universities in the country. He was also a member of the subcommittee that drafted arbitration treaties and regulations for the Inter-American Conference on Reconciliation and Arbitration, held in the United States in 1929.

After the end of World War I, he was the head of the Panama delegation in negotiations with the United States on the status of the Panama Canal.

In 1922-1930 and in 1933-1936. - Ambassador of Panama to the USA.

In 1928 he was elected vice president, and from January 1931 to June 1932. Acted as head of state after the determination of the country's Supreme Court.

In 1940, he was defeated in the presidential election, but continued his political career, participating in the development of the draft new Constitution of the country in 1944.

At the end of World War II, he led the delegation of Panama at the founding conference of the United Nations (UN) in San Francisco (1945). He was one of the most active delegates, having proposed the Spanish version of the Charter of the United Nations, he also developed the draft “Declaration of the Rights and Obligations of States” for the peaceful regulation of international relations and the “Declaration of Fundamental Human Rights” in the UN Charter, which, incidentally, did not receive the support of the majority. Despite this, he re-introduced the draft declaration of human rights during the first session of the United Nations General Assembly. In 1947, he introduced it to the newly created UN Commission on Human Rights, which included itself. On the basis of this document, the text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted the following year was ultimately formulated. In 1946, he was the first signatory to the proposed Polish-American lawyer Rafael Lemkin of the draft of the future UN General Assembly Resolution No. 96, which formed the basis of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted two years later.

In 1946-1947 - Minister of Foreign Affairs of Panama. He resigned in protest against the proposed agreement with the United States through the Panama Canal.

From 1949 to 1953 He was a member of the UN International Law Commission . In 1959, he taught at the Hague Academy of International Law. In the same year, at the age of 76, he was elected judge of the International Court of Justice at The Hague; from 1961 to 1964 was the vice president of the court.

In 1964, retired by age.

In 1948 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Southern California .

Since 1954 he was a member of the Institute of International Law , since 1966 he was an honorary member of the American Society of International Law.

• Life of General Thomas Herrera. Barcelona, ​​1909
• Carabobo: a historical narrative. Panama, 1921
• Rights and obligations of states. Consolidated course of the Hague Academy of International Law. The Hague, 1960

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