Peter Denis Sutherland (25 April 1946 – 7 January 2018) was an Irish businessman, barrister and Fine Gael politician who served as UN Special Representative for International Migration from 2006 to 2017.

He previously served as Attorney General of Ireland (1981–1982, 1982–1984); European Commissioner for Competition (1985–1989); founding Director-General of the World Trade Organization,[3] formerly GATT (1993–1995); and chairman of Goldman Sachs International (1995–2015).

He served in the first Delors Commission, where he played a crucial role in opening up European competition, particularly in the airline, telecoms, and energy sectors.

[15]: 69  Chairing the Uruguay Round, Sutherland "employed tactics the likes of which had never been seen before in GATT…he worked to create the sense of unstoppable momentum" by mobilising the press and media and instigating "a more aggressive public relations than the staid GATT had ever before seen".

[15]: 70 A 2013 book by Craig VanGrasstek of the Harvard Kennedy School, published by the WTO, The History and Future of the World Trade Organization,[15] details Sutherland's role in the formation and establishment of the body.

[citation needed] Sutherland was a director of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group until the UK government took it over to avoid bankruptcy.

CRH plc was fined in 1994 by the European Competition Directorate General for its role in the pan-European cement cartel (Case Number IV 33.126 AND 33.322).

UN member states acclaimed the Global Forum at the UN High-Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development in September 2006, and would be launched in Brussels in July 2007.

[needs update] On 5 December 2006, he was appointed as Consultor of the Extraordinary Section of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (a financial adviser to the Vatican).

[33] Sutherland was also co-chairman of the High Level Group appointed by the governments of Germany, the United Kingdom, Indonesia and Turkey to report on the conclusion of the Doha Round and the future of multilateral trade negotiations.

[36] In an interview with The Irish Times in early 2010,[37] Sutherland revealed that in summer 2009, during a holiday, one of his children noticed a swelling on his throat while they sat on a beach.

[37] For Sutherland, a Europhile, the worst part about his illness was missing the "mortal combat" of fighting for the Yes vote in the second Lisbon referendum.

Sutherland believed Ireland failed in economic terms over most of the past four decades except for a "sparkling period" from 1994 to 2002 when the state took advantage of European Union (EU) changes freeing up the movement of goods, capital and services across Europe.

[38] Kofi Annan twice offered him the job of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, a fact, he said, that he had never disclosed publicly before, but he declined both times due to other commitments.

He cited his work at GATT and the introduction of the Erasmus student exchange programme when he briefly held the education portfolio at the Commission in 1986 as his two most rewarding achievements.

Sutherland also argued (b) that migration is a "crucial dynamic for economic growth" and that this is the case "however difficult it may be to explain this to the citizens of those states".

Mainstream politicians, held hostage by xenophobic parties, adopt anti-immigrant rhetoric to win over a fearful public, while the foreign-born are increasingly marginalized in schools, cities and at the workplace.