GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) – Sir Shridath “Sonny” Ramphal, a former minister of justice and foreign affairs of Guyana who once wrote that his life “cannot be said to be an example entirely of cultivated aims and pursued ambitions (and) more of following instincts, died Friday. He was 95 years old.

In a statement announcing his “peaceful” death, the family said he was surrounded by his children and described him as “a towering figure in international diplomacy and a cherished elder statesman of the Commonwealth and the Caribbean”.

In his curriculum vitae (CV) titled “My CV – and how life unfolded,” Sir Shridath said that it looked at “a period of some 75 years – from the time I was 18 in 1946,’ and that while he was pleased with the content, he was also “little embarrassed…because I have never given myself credit for all in it that is worthy”.

He described his adolescent years, as “joyous and care-free” and that while school was not tedious “I was not a star..

“When time came for me to take aim at the one scholarship in British Guiana that would guarantee professional training abroad, awareness that I could not be first of my year caused me not to try. Instead, I settled for securing University qualifications, editing the College Magazine and helping to stage (and be part of) a bi-school production of A Midsummer’s Night Dream.

“Thought of the hereafter never plagued me. Which means I never set goals. My father was a pioneer educationalist in British Guiana and had early set for me the goal of law. I accepted implicitly that that would be my path in life. I was later to understand that it was his own life-long ambition for himself; and he was to fulfil it even as I began the process of University in London,” he wrote.

According to the family statement, Sir Shridath was educated at King’s College London and Gray’s Inn, London, and that his “distinguished career spanned numerous pivotal roles” including assistant attorney-general of the West Indies Federation, minister of justice and foreign affairs of Guyana, and secretary-general of the Commonwealth. He also held concurrent positions as chancellor of the University of Guyana, the University of the West Indies, and Warwick University.

“Inevitably, so much of my CV that has to do with service in the Federation from which my own BG(British Guiana) had opted out and that West Indian politicians failed to save – accepting Eric Williams’ spurious arithmetic that ‘1 from 10 leaves 0’. And so much, too has to do with building and caring for Caricom. Their roots are in early times and with those who made those times fertile.

“The moment of federal collapse, and my life that emerged thereafter, was bridged by the spontaneous magnanimity of Harvey DaCosta – who as I found out only when we were both in Federal Service – were the only West Indians to have been through the Colonial Legal Probationership Scheme.

“Harvey rescued me from uncertainty when Eric Williams thwarted Philip sherlock’s wish for me to plan Law Studies at UWI – by inviting me to come to Jamaica anyway and join his newly started ‘Chambers’ – Jamaica’s first. But for his kindly – and spontaneous – intervention in my life, who knows what road I might have taken. My CV would, certainly, have looked much different,” Sir Shridath wrote.

The family statement said he was the only individual to have served on all the Global Commissions that produced landmark reports on the environment, development, and disarmament between 1980 and 1995.

As chairman of the West Indian Commission, his 1992 report, “Time for Action,” remains a seminal blueprint for Caribbean development.

Globally respected, Sir Shridath served in various capacities, including president of the World Conservation Union, special adviser to the UN Conference on Environment and Development, and chief negotiator for the Caribbean on External Economic Relations. He was also a mediator and facilitator in elections and constitutional crises.

As the longest-serving Commonwealth Secretary-General from 1975 to 1990, Sir Shridath was instrumental in the fight against institutional racism in Southern Africa, playing a key role in the termination of apartheid in South Africa. Nelson Mandela once said of him: “He is one of those men who have become famous because, in their fight for human justice, they have chosen the whole world as their theatre.”

According to Sir Shridath, those 15 years as Commonwealth secretary general “opened many doors and many had a hand in what unfolded – some by sheer inspiration – like Nelson Mandela.

“But the many important paths I trod in the eight International Commissions with which I was associated owed their beginning to one of our generation’s great men – Willy Brandt ( the German politician and statesman). To him, my CV owes very much.”

In his later years, Sir Shridath continued to serve with distinction. At 92, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, he was the first lawyer to appear virtually before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), representing Guyana in a significant border dispute with Venezuela.

Sir Shridath was the recipient of numerous prestigious honours, including the Order of the Caribbean Community (OCC), the Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG), the Order of Excellence of Guyana (OE), the Order of Merit of Jamaica (OM), the Order of the Companions of Oliver Tambo from South Africa, Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), and an appointment to the Order of New Zealand, New Zealand’s highest civil honour.

In 2005, Sir Shridath donated all his official papers, covering his service to the West Indies Federation, the Government of Guyana, the Commonwealth, the Caribbean Community (Caricom), the international commissions on which he served and the international bodies which he chaired, to the Library of the Cave Hill, Barbados Campus of the University of the West Indies.

Sir Shridath was predeceased by his wife of 67 years, Lady Lois Ramphal, on September 20, 2019. He is also survived by his children Susan, Ian, Mark, Amanda as well as his his son-in-law, Sir Ronald Sanders, the Antigua and Barbuda Ambassador to the United States and the Organization of American States (OAS).