Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici (1933-2022)

On 5 November 2022, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici passed away in Malta. He had been the country’s Prime Minister from 1984 to 1987 and leader of the Labour Party (Malta) from 1984 to 1992. He was also a founding member of International-Lawyers.Org’s (INTLawyers) Advisory Board.

Bonnici was one of the most well-known public figures in Malta. He was actively engaged in the politics of his country, Europe, and the international community, including through writing and hosting a radio show, right up until the last few months when he fell ill.

A lawyer by training, Bonnici began his professional career as a trade union official. By the 1970s he had become a influential figure in the Labour Party (Malta). In 1980 he became deputy leader of the party and subsequently served as Senior Deputy Prime Minister, Education Minister, and Prime Minister (during this tenure he also held the portfolios of Interior Minister and Education Minister).

A major concern of his was peace in Europe. He opposed NATO as an organization, which he argued contributed more to causing conflict than perpetuating peace. To this end he called for disbanding NATO as a military alliance. He also opposed Malta’s 2003 entry into the European Union (EU) in part because he feared that the EU had become more than a union of social and economic cooperation, but also a supporter of aggressive wars such as the United States’ invasion of Iraq, an invasion that killed an estimated one million Iraqis, included hundreds of thousands of children.

Bonnici was a consistent, committed, and invaluable founding member of INTLawyers’ Advisory Committee, along with the 66th Attorney General of the United States Ramsey Clark, who passed away in 2021, and Nicaraguan Foreign Minister and President of the 63rd United Nations General Assembly Father Miguel D’Escoto-Brookmann, who passed away in 2017. As an Advisory Board member of INTLawyers, he worked tirelessly to guide INTLawyers during its creation and thereafter. He continued to provide advice and support to INTLawyers up until his recent illness, always seeking to help the organization strive for social justice and respect for the rule of international law.

INTLawyers offers its condolences and sympathies to Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici’s family and friends. He has inspired us to continue to strive for our goals of social justice and respect for the rule of international law.