Sub-Fonds - Pelt, Adrianus

Pelt, Adrianus was born in 1892 in Netherlands and died in 1981 in Switzerland.

He began his career in 1909 as an international journalist. He joined the League of Nations in 1920 as a member of the Information Section of the Secretariat. Within this section, between 1920 and 1940, he was the director of the Press Section to the Delegation of the League of Nations for the reconstruction of Austria in Vienna staff member of the former mayor of Rotterdam AR. Zimmerman.
He has led several international missions as evidenced by the documents of the fonds.

In 1934, he became the Director of the Information Section. Knowledge of information technologies have allowed him to be involved in the creation of a press office in The Hague May 10, 1940, he left Geneva to provide services to the Dutch government.

In 1939, A. Pelt was Commissioner-General at Geneva (cf. S. Lester's Diary p. 368).

During the war, he led the Dutch government information service in London.

He represented his country as a member of the Dutch delegation to the Preparatory UN conference in San Francisco in 1945. He joined the United Nations in 1946 and was appointed Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations Department of Conference and General Services. He was in charge of the transfer of the only files of the League of Nations archives pertaining to the transferable activities and functions of the United Nations. For the transfer of certain files from the Archives of the League of Nations (Registry) to the United Nations, A. Pelt worked in cooperation with W. Moderow, Director, representing the Secretary-General of the United Nations and A. Sobolev, Assistant Secretary-General in charge of Security Council Affairs Department. M. Moderow took up the question of placing the inactive files of the League of Nations Registry with the Library.

In 1949, he represented the United Nations Commissioner in Libya. His mission was to form a new state from Cyrenaica, the Tipolitania and Fezzan (former Italian colonies). Then he had a mission to help libyiens to build a united government and choose a constitution. It was a success and he received the nickname viceroy of Libya.
From April 1952 to December 1957, he was the Director of the European Office of the United Nations (UNEO). In this fonds, we don't find any documents about this activity.
After his retirement, he still has long used his diplomatic skills, including as General Secretary of the World Federation of United Nations Associations.
He also worked for the Nederlandse Hartstichting Foundation and has served on the board of the internation Heart Institute in Geneva.

He is the author of a book on the decolonization of Libya: "Libyan independence and the united Nations; a case of planned decolonization, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1970.