Emil Sandström

Emil Fredrik Sandström (1886, Nyköping, Sweden – 1962) was a Swedish lawyer. He was the chairman of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) in 1947, and the chairman of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies from 1950 to 1959.

Legal career Sandstrom served as a Supreme Court judge at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague as well as the so-called mixed courts in Egypt that settled disputes between Egyptians and foreigners. He also acted as an international mediator.

He was the Swedish representative of the United Nations in Palestine and chaired UNSCOP from June 1947. This committee was convened to decide the fate of Palestine as the British Mandate was about to expire. Rather than creating two states, Sandstrom proposed establishing a Jewish state that would encompass part of the country while annexing the rest to Jordan. When he visited Jordan to check out this option, the idea was clearly supported by King Abdullah.

In addition he succeeded Folke Bernadotte as president of the Swedish Red Cross.

In 1950, Sandström became a member of the Institut de Droit International (Institute for International Law).