Max van der Stoel

His Excellency Max van der Stoel
Max van der Stoel in 1981
High Commissioner on National Minorities of the OSCE
In office 1 January 1993 – 1 July 2001
Secretary-General	See list Wilhelm Höynck (1993–1996) Giancarlo Aragona (1996–1999) Ján Kubiš (1999–2001)
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Rolf Ekeus
Member of the Council of State
In office 1 August 1986 – 1 January 1993
Vice President	Willem Scholten
Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to the United Nations
In office 1 July 1983 – 1 August 1986
Preceded by	Hugo Scheltema
Succeeded by	Peter van Walsum
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 11 September 1981 – 29 May 1982
Prime Minister	Dries van Agt
Preceded by	Chris van der Klaauw
Succeeded by	Dries van Agt
In office 11 May 1973 – 19 December 1977
Prime Minister	Joop den Uyl
Preceded by	Norbert Schmelzer
Succeeded by	Chris van der Klaauw
Member of the European Parliament
In office 22 September 1971 – 11 May 1973
Parliamentary group	Socialist Group
Constituency	Netherlands
State Secretary for Foreign Affairs
In office 22 July 1965 – 22 November 1966 Serving with Leo de Block
Prime Minister	Jo Cals
Preceded by	Isaäc Nicolaas Diepenhorst
Succeeded by	Leo de Block
Member of the House of Representatives
In office 16 January 1978 – 11 September 1981
In office 8 June 1977 – 8 September 1977
In office 23 February 1967 – 11 May 1973
In office 5 June 1963 – 22 July 1965
Parliamentary group	Labour Party
Member of the Senate
In office 27 September 1960 – 5 June 1963
Parliamentary group	Labour Party
Personal details
Born	Maximilianus van der Stoel (1924-08-03)3 August 1924 Voorschoten, Netherlands
Died	23 April 2011(2011-04-23) (aged 86) The Hague, Netherlands
Political party	Labour Party (from 1950)
Spouse	Maria Aritia de Kanter ​ ​ (m. 1953; div. 1976)​
Children	4 daughters and 1 son
Alma mater	Leiden University (Bachelor of Laws, Bachelor of Social Science, Master of Laws, Master of Social Science)
Occupation	Politician · Diplomat · Civil servant · Jurist · Researcher · Nonprofit director · Lobbyist · Activist · Author · Professor
Signature

Maximilianus "Max" van der Stoel (Dutch pronunciation: [ˌmɑksimiliˈjaːnɵs ˈmɑks fɑn dɛr ˈstul]; 3 August 1924 – 23 April 2011) was a Dutch politician and diplomat of the Labour Party (PvdA) and jurist. He was granted the honorary title of Minister of State on 17 May 1991.

Van der Stoel worked as a researcher at the Wiardi Beckman Foundation from 1953 until 1960. Van der Stoel was elected as a Member of the Senate following the Senate election of 1960, serving from 27 September 1960 until 5 June 1963. He was elected as a Member of the House of Representatives after the election of 1963, serving from 5 June 1963 until 22 July 1965. After the fall of the Cabinet Marijnen on 27 February 1965 Van der Stoel was appointed as State Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet Cals, taking office on 22 July 1965. The Cabinet Cals fell on 14 October 1966 and was replaced by the caretaker Cabinet Zijlstra on 22 November 1966. After the election of 1967 Van der Stoel returned as a Member of the House of Representatives on 23 February 1967. Van der Stoel was selected as a Member of the European Parliament and dual served in those positions from 22 September 1971 until 11 May 1973. After the election of 1972 Van der Stoel was appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet Den Uyl, serving from 11 May 1973 until 19 December 1977. After the election of 1977 Van der Stoel returned as a Member of the House of Representatives, serving from 8 June 1977 until 8 September 1977 and again from 16 January 1978. After the election of 1981 Van der Stoel was again appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet Van Agt II, taking office on 11 September 1981. The Cabinet Van Agt II fell just seven months into its term on 12 May 1982 and the Labour Party cabinet members resigned on 29 May 1982. Shortly after the fall of the cabinet Van der Stoel announced that she would not stand for the election of 1982.

Van der Stoel remained in active politics, in June 1983 he was nominated as the next Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to the United Nations, serving from 1 July 1983 until 1 August 1986. Van der Stoel was nominated as a Member of the Council of State, serving from 1 August 1986 until his resignation on 1 January 1993 when was appointed as the first High Commissioner on National Minorities of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), serving from 1 January 1993 until 1 July 2001.

Following the end of his active political career, Van der Stoel served as a distinguished professor of minority rights at the Leiden University holding the Cleveringa Chair, serving from 1 April 1999 1999 until 1 April 2000 and as a distinguished professor for international relations, international law, European law and peace and conflict studies at the Tilburg University from 1 January 2001 until 1 January 2003. After his retirement Van der Stoel occupied numerous seats as a nonprofit director for supervisory boards for non-governmental organizations (Institute for Multiparty Democracy, Carnegie Foundation, Earth Charter Initiative, ProDemos, Netherlands Atlantic Association, Institute of International Relations Clingendael and the European Association of History Educators) and as an advocate, lobbyist and activist for human rights, humanitarianism, democracy and for European integration presiding over several commissions for the European Union.

Van der Stoel was known for his abilities as a negotiator and consensus builder. Van der Stoel continued to comment on political affairs as a statesman until his death.

Biography

Early life

Van der Stoel studied law at Leiden University where he obtained an LL.M. degree. From 1953 to 1958 he worked for the Wiardi Beckman Stichting, the scientific bureau of the Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA, the Dutch labour party) and became international secretary for the PvdA in 1963.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Max van der Stoel, Chancellor of West-Germany Helmut Schmidt and Prime Minister Joop den Uyl during a meeting at the Catshuis on 2 November 1974.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Max van der Stoel, Prime Minister of Spain Adolfo Suárez and Prime Minister Joop den Uyl during a meeting at the Catshuis on 29 August 1977.

Politics

From 1973 to 1977 and 1981 to 1982 he was the Netherlands Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 1977, during his visit to communist Czechoslovakia, he met with philosopher and dissident Jan Patočka, and they discussed Charter 77 and human rights in Czechoslovakia. This provoked harsh criticism by the Czechoslovak authorities and president Gustáv Husák cancelled scheduled meeting with van der Stoel.

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. Max van der Stoel was a member of the Bilderberg Group.

In 2001, following his intervention as High Commissioner in the ongoing problem of equitable access to higher education by members of the Albanian ethnic group in the Republic of Macedonia, he became the founding President of the International Foundation for the South East European University, raising some 35m Euros from the international community. He later served as President of the University Board until 2004. He was awarded the University's first honorary Doctorate and the University named its Library in his honour.

Van der Stoel was a member of the Advisory Board of the European Association of History Educators (EUROCLIO).

Freedom awards

• Freedom of Speech of the Four Freedoms Award (1982)
• Helène de Montigny award (December 1991)
• Dr. J.P. van Praag award (1 June 1993, Netherlands)
• Geuzenpenning (1993, Netherlands)
• Wateler Peace award (30 oktober 1996)

Honorary degrees

• Honorary doctorate in Law, University of Athens (1977, Greece)
• Honorary doctorate in Law, Utrecht University (1994, Netherlands)
• Honorary doctorate in Law, Pázmány Péter Catholic University (1999, Hungary)
• Honorary Doctor, South East European University (2005, Republic of Macedonia)

Other

• In 2014, a new park in Prague (in Jan Patočka street) was named in van der Stoel's honour. In 2017, forty years after his meeting with Jan Patočka, Van der Stoel's memorial created by Dominik Lang was unveiled in the park.

Decorations

Honours
Ribbon bar	Honour	Country	Date	Comment
	Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion	Netherlands	5 December 1966
	Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour	France	25 Augustus 1973
	Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown	Belgium	15 March 1974
	Honorary Medal for Initiative and Ingenuity of the Order of the House of Orange	Netherlands	19 September 1974
	Grand Cross Special Class of the Order of Merit	Germany	1975
	Grand Cross of the Order of Merit	Portugal	1975
	Grand Officer of the Honorary Order of the Palm	Suriname	4 September 1977
	Grand Cross of the Order of the Phoenix	Greece	10 December 1977
	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic	Spain	1981
	Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold	Belgium	10 January 1982
	Grand Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau	Netherlands	9 September 1982	Elevated from Commander (11 April 1978)
	Second Class of the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk	Czech Republic	15 May 1996
	Knight of the Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau	Netherlands / Luxembourg	31 August 1999
	Grand Cross of the Order of the White Double Cross	Slovakia	5 February 2001
	Fourth Class of the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise	Ukraine	30 September 2001
	Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George	United Kingdom	1 December 2006
Awards
Ribbon bar	Awards	Organization	Date	Comment
	Four Freedoms Award	Roosevelt Institute for American Studies	1982
	Geuzenpenning	Vlaardingen	1993
Honorific Titles
Ribbon bar	Honour	Country	Date	Comment
	Minister of State	Netherlands	17 May 1991	Style of Excellency

Honorary degrees

Honorary degrees
University	Field	Country	Date	Comment
University of Athens	Law	Greece	1977
Utrecht University	Law	Netherlands	1994
Tilburg University	Law	Netherlands	2003

External links

Official

• Template:Nl icon Dr. M. (Max) van der Stoel Parlement & Politiek
• Template:Nl icon Mr. M. van der Stoel (PvdA) Eerste Kamer der Staten-Generaal