The Swiss Government facilitated the Establishment of the Secretariat in Geneva in proximity to the numerous international humanitarian organizations functioning there. The staff was recruited on a short term basis and rotated according to the exigencies of the Commission’s programme of work but remained very small, consisting of a handful of professional and support staff. Zia Rizvi, a senior United Nations official was detached to the Commission for the total period of its activity. He directed the Secretariat and assumed responsibility for editing the Commission’s final report and the various sectoral reports published under the aegis of the Commission. Brian Walker served as the Director until December 1985. Jean-Bernard Ducrest, Maria de Sousa and Michel Vieux helped in the administrative arrangements.
For varying periods of time, the following worked as support staff in the Secretariat: Bettina Balmer, Monique Fritsch, Maeve Fitzgerald, Fiona Frank, Liliane de Giorgi, Martine Jacometti, Camille Kryspin, Marie-José Louis and Anne Toh.
Research assistance and advice was provided at various times by Rosemary Abi-Saab, Paolo Bifani, Pierre Bringuier, Dee Ann Caflisch, Nigel Cantwell, Jumphot Chuasai, Jeff Crisp, Padraig Czajkowski, Richard Falk, Merrick Fall, Victor Yves Ghebai, Nick de Keller, Joan Mahalic, Norah Niland, Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, Anita Singh, Bernarda Smit, Isabelle Subirats, Darka Topali, Etse Wolde-Giyorgis, Minja Yang and Sharareh Zolfagari.
Much of the substantive work on the Commission’s final report and the various sectoral reports was done by Julian Burger, Mohamed El-Kouhene, Drew Mahalic and Pierre Spitz.
Valuable support was provided to the ICIHI Secretariat by some of the staff colleagues of individual Commissioners. The assistance of Ms Kathleen Newland of the United Nations University, Tokyo, and of Hugh Craft, Clive Jordan and Pera Wells of the Commonwealth Secretariat, London, is gratefully acknowledged. Thanks are due also to Michael Keating, Shehab Madi, Filippo di Robilant and Margaret Smart.