Sir Shridath Surendranath Ramphal (born 3 October 1928), often known as Sir Sonny Ramphal, is a Guyanese politician who was the second

Commonwealth Secretary-General The Commonwealth secretary-general is the head of the Commonwealth Secretariat, the central body which has served the Commonwealth of Nations since its establishment in 1965, and responsible for representing the Commonwealth publicly. The Commo ...

, holding the position from 1975 to 1990. He was also the foreign minister of Guyana from 1972 to 1975, and assistant attorney general of the

West Indies Federation The West Indies Federation, also known as the West Indies, the Federation of the West Indies or the West Indian Federation, was a short-lived political union that existed from 3 January 1958 to 31 May 1962. Various islands in the Caribbean that ...

from 1958 to 1962. Shridath Ramphal is an

Earth Charter The Earth Charter is an international declaration of fundamental values and principles considered useful by its supporters for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the 21st century. Created by a global consultation process, ...

International Commission member.

Biography

Ramphal was born in New Amsterdam, British Guiana, to an

Indo-Guyanese Indo-Guyanese or Indian-Guyanese, are people of Indian origin who are Guyanese nationals tracing their ancestry to India and the wider subcontinent. They are the descendants of indentured servants and settlers who migrated from India beginnin ...

family. After attending schools in Georgetown, Ramphal studied law at King's College London, graduating with

LL.B. Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

and LL.M. degrees. He was called to the bar at

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and W ...

in London in 1951. As a pupil barrister he worked with the British politician and lawyer

Dingle Foot Sir Dingle Mackintosh Foot, QC (24 August 1905 – 18 June 1978) was a British lawyer, Liberal and Labour Member of Parliament, and Solicitor General for England and Wales in the first government of Harold Wilson. Family and education Born ...

. Ramphal continued studying law for a year at Harvard Law School in the US on a 1962 Guggenheim Fellowship. Ramphal started his legal career as a Crown Counsel in the Attorney-General's Office in 1953, becoming Solicitor-General and then Assistant Attorney-General of the short-lived West Indies Federation. After a period in private practice in Jamaica, he returned to British Guiana in 1965 to be the Attorney General. Two years later, he was also appointed Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs, later becoming Minister of Justice (from 1973) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (from 1972). In 1975, he left Guyana to become Commonwealth Secretary-General. He also served as the Chancellor of the

University of Warwick , mottoeng = Mind moves matter , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £7.0 million (2021) , budget = £698.2 million (2020� ...

from 1989 to 2002, at the University of the West Indies from 1989 to 2003, and at the

University of Guyana The University of Guyana, in Georgetown, Guyana, is Guyana's national higher education institution. It was established in April 1963 with the following Mission: "To discover, generate, disseminate, and apply knowledge of the highest standard for ...

from 1990 to 1992. During Ramphal's time as Commonwealth Secretary-General, the United Kingdom represented by

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

was found to be in a minority of one on the issue of

economic sanctions Economic sanctions are commercial and financial penalties applied by one or more countries against a targeted self-governing state, group, or individual. Economic sanctions are not necessarily imposed because of economic circumstances—they ma ...

against

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. With Ingvar Carlsson, he was in 1995 one of the co-chairs of the

Commission on Global Governance The Commission on Global Governance was an organization co-chaired by Swedish Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson, and former Commonwealth Secretary-General Shridath Ramphal, that produced a controversial report, '' Our Global Neighborhood'', in 1995. ...

, which reported on issues of international development, international security,

globalization Globalization, or globalisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is the process of foreign relation ...

and global governance.

Selected bibliography

* ''Inseparable Humanity: An Anthology of Reflections'' ( Hansib, 1988) * ''Triumph for UNCLOS: The Guyana-Suriname Maritime Arbitration'' (Hansib, 2008) * ''Caribbean Challenges: Sir Shridath Ramphal's Collected Counsel'' (Hansib, 2012)

Honours and awards

Sir Shridath was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 1966 Birthday Honours (the list was dated to 25 May of that year). He was knighted in the 1970 New Year Honours, and invested with his knighthood by

the Queen In the English-speaking world, The Queen most commonly refers to: * Elizabeth II (1926–2022), Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 1952 until her death The Queen may also refer to: * Camilla, Queen Consort (born 1947), ...

at Buckingham Palace on 3 February. He was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (GCMG) in 1990. On 26 February 1982, Sir Shridath was appointed an honorary Companion of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gov ...

(AC). On 6 February 1990, Ramphal was the 19th appointee to the Order of New Zealand, New Zealand's highest civil honour. He was decorated as a Member of the

Order of the Caribbean Community The Order of the Caribbean Community is an award given to The award was initiated at the Eighth (8th) Conference of Heads of State and Governments of CARICOM in 1987 and began bestowal in 1992. Decisions as to award are taken by the Advisory Co ...

(OCC) in the first conferment in 1992. In May 2006 Ramphal was appointed an Honorary Fellow of Royal Society of Arts. He is a vice-president of the

Royal Commonwealth Society The Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) is a non-governmental organisation with a mission to promote the value of the Commonwealth and the values upon which it is based. The Society upholds the values of the Commonwealth Charter, promoting conf ...

. The Ramphal Building at the

University of Warwick , mottoeng = Mind moves matter , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £7.0 million (2021) , budget = £698.2 million (2020� ...

was named in his honour. In 2002, Rampal was awarded the Indira Gandhi Peace Prize.

Popular culture

Ramphal is portrayed by Tony Jayawardena in the fourth season of the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

web television series ''

The Crown The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...

''.

References

External links

*
Transcript of the interview, part one

Transcript of the interview, part twoThe Ramphal Institute
- Official website for the continuation of the work of Sir Shridath Ramphal: promoting good governance, economic development and social justice around the world. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ramphal, Shridath 1928 births Living people Alumni of King's College London British colonial attorneys general in the Americas Chancellors of the University of Warwick Commonwealth Secretaries-General Fellows of King's College London Foreign ministers of Guyana Guyanese diplomats Guyanese knights Guyanese Queen's Counsel 20th-century King's Counsel Guyanese politicians of Indian descent Harvard Law School alumni Honorary Fellows of the London School of Economics Justice ministers of Guyana Knights Bachelor Members of Gray's Inn People from New Amsterdam, Guyana Presidents of the International Union for Conservation of Nature Recipients of Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Recipients of the Order of the Companions of O. R. Tambo