Arvid Pardo

He became the ward of a friend of his father, Italian diplomat Bernardo Attolico, who served as Ambassador to Brazil, the Soviet Union, Germany and the Vatican.

[citation needed] Pardo spoke Italian, English, French, Swedish and Spanish fluently, and knew German fairly well.

After the fall of Benito Mussolini's government, he was freed in September 1943, but was re-arrested at once by the Gestapo and kept in Alexanderplatz and Charlottenburg Prisons in Berlin under a sentence of death.

[citation needed] During his time as UN delegate, which ended in 1971 after Dom Mintoff's return to office, Pardo's lasting achievement was his work to reform the law of the sea.

On 1 November 1967, he made an electrifying speech before the General Assembly calling for international regulations to ensure peace at sea, to prevent further pollution and to protect ocean resources.

[5] It was Pardo who initiated the fifteen-year process that would culminate in 1982, when the Convention was opened for signatures, and in the early years, he continued a dedicated effort to promote the issue, for instance helping achieve near-unanimous passage of GA Resolution 2749 on December 17, 1970.

[6] Pardo was unhappy with the final instrument's provision for an Exclusive Economic Zone, lamenting that the common heritage of mankind had been whittled down to "a few fish and a little seaweed".