Alfonso
Garcia Robles was born in Zamora, Michoacán in 1911. He received a BA degree in
Law from Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México. He also attended the
University of Paris, Institute of International Studies, and the Academy of
International Law in The Hague, Holland.
In 1939, he entered the Mexican Foreign Service starting his diplomatic career
in Switzerland. He returned to Mexico in 1941 to join the Foreign Affairs
Secretariat as Political Affairs and Diplomatic Service
Assistant Director. He represented Mexico in a series of international meetings
which laid the legal foundation of the United Nations in 1945. From 1946 to
1956, he lived in New York working for the United Nations as Officer of the
Political Division of the Security Council.
In 1957, Garcia Robles returned to the Mexican Diplomatic Service. From 1958 to
1960, he was the Director for the European and Asian Affairs and for
International Organizations at the Foreign Affairs Secretariat. He was
ambassador in Brazil from 1961 to 1964. He was afterwards appointed
Undersecretary of the Foreign Affairs Secretariat. And, in that position he
presided over the sessions held in Mexico City, which concluded with the 1967
Treaty for the Proscription of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America, better
known as the Tlaltelolco Treaty. From 1970 to 1975, he went back to New York at
the United Nations, as representative of Mexico. Afterwards he lived in Geneva,
where he was the representative of Mexico before the United Nations Disarmament
Committee.
In October 1982, he was awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize. He shared this honor
with the Swedish writer, Alva Myrdal, who supported him in many of
the negotiations in favor of the international disarmament process. In his
speech, he quoted Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russel who in 1955 declared “not
as a member of this or that nation, or of this or that continent or creed, but
as human beings, members of the human kind which future existence is doubtful,
we must learn to think in a new way”.
Garcia Robles published several important books on politics, diplomacy and
international law. Among his numerous publications, he is best known for:
Postwar World, The 338 Days of Tlaltelolco, A New International Order and
Disarmament and Six Years of Mexico’s Foreign Policy.
Alfonso Garcia Robles died on September 4, 1991 at the age of 80 in Mexico City.
