Hans Blix

Dr Hans Blix was born in  1928 in Uppsala, Sweden. He was educated and trained as a lawyer. He was appointed Associate Professor in International Law at the Stockholm University.

He left academia to take up his appointment at the Swedish Foreign Ministry. From 1963 to 1976, Blix was Head of Department at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and served as Legal Adviser on International Law. In 1976, he became Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, in charge of international development cooperation. He was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs in October 1978.

From 1961 until 1981, he was a member of Sweden’s delegation to the United Nations General Assembly; and from 1962 to 1978, a member of the Swedish delegation to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.

Blix served as Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from 1981 to 1997. Between 2000 and 2003, he was Executive Chairman of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC).

Since then Blix has been chair of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (WMDC), an independent body based in Stockholm with the mandate to “seek to identify desirable and achievable directions for international cooperation” on issues related to WMDs.