Princess Margriet hands over the award to Cornelio SommarugaFormer president of IofC International, Cornelio Sommaruga, has received the highest award of the Red Cross, the Henri Dunant Medal. It was handed over to him on 7 May by Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet of the Netherlands, who had received it on his behalf in November 2009 at the international conference of the Red Cross in Nairobi. HRH Princess Margriet, former chair of the Standing Committee of the Red Cross, worked closely together with Cornelio Sommaruga, when he was president of the International Committee of the Red Cross from 1987-1999.

The guests pose in the Noordeinde palaceThe official handing over of the medal took place in the Noordeinde Palace in The Hague, where Princess Margriet read out the Tribute to Cornelio Sommaruga from H.E. Dr. Mohammed Al-Hadid, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent before she handed him the medal.

Besides high officials from the Netherlands Red Cross, representatives of the ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Swiss Embassy, three representatives of Initiatives of Change in the Netherlands were present: Lotty Wolvekamp, Johannes de Pous and Hennie de Pous-de Jonge. The ceremony was followed by a dinner in Castle De Wittenburg.