| C. Wilfred Jenks | |
| Birth Name: | Clarence Wilfred Jenks |
| Birth Date: | 7 March 1909 |
| Birth Place: | Bootle, Lancashire, England |
| Death Place: | Rome, Italy |
| Resting Place: | Geneva, Switzerland |
| Director-General, International Labour Organization | |
| Term: | 1970-1973 |
| Predecessor: | David A. Morse |
| Successor: | Francis Blanchard |
C. Wilfred Jenks (7 March 1909 - 9 October 1973) was an international lawyer and director-general of the International Labour Organization (1970 - 1973).[1]
Clarence Wilfred Jenks was born 7 March 1909 in Bootle, Lancashire. His father, a merchant navy officer, drowned when Jenks was eleven and he assumed responsibility with his mother for the family.[1]
Jenks was educated in state schools in Liverpool and, in 1926, he won an open scholarship to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and, in 1930, was president of the Cambridge Union. He was treasurer, British Universities League of Nations Society and chair, Cambridge University League of Nations Union. He twice won a scholarship to the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva.[1] He took a double first in history (1929) and law (1931) winning the Cecil Peace Prize in 1928 for a study on international arbitration.[2]
Upon finishing his studies at Cambridge, Jenks joined the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Geneva as a legal adviser in the Legal Division. He became Assistant Director-General, Deputy Director-General, principal Deputy Director-General and Director-General. As Director-General, he was preceded by David A. Morse and succeeded by Francis Blanchard.
In 1936, he was called to the English bar by Gray's Inn.[1]
In 1944, with acting Director Edward J. Phelan, he drafted the Declaration of Philadelphia which restated the ILO's aims and purposes, envisioning the ILO as the master economic agency among the specialised international bodies.[3] [2] He was part of the ILO delegation at a number of international conferences including:
Jenks carried for many years the main responsibility for the ILO's work in international labour standards and human rights.[2]
Jenks was "one of the most prominent and prolific writers on international law of his time. His ... "Some constitutional problems of international organization" ... was for long the unrivalled source of instruction on that subject for professionals and academics alike."[1]
Jenks was Professor, Hague Academy of International Law in 1950, 1955 and 1966. He was Storrs Lecturer in Jurisprudence, Yale University, 1965.
In 1949, Jenks married Jane Louise Broverman of New York. They had two sons.[1]
On 9 October 1973 Jenks was attending a session of the Institut de Droit International in Rome when he had a fatal heart attack. He was buried in Geneva.[1]
C. Wilfred Jenks was awarded the following honours:[4] 1928 Cecil Peace Prize1959 American Society of International Law award1967 Hon LLD, University of Edinburgh1971 Hon LLD, University of Delhi1971 Hon LLD, Seoul National University1971 Hon LLD, University of La Plata1972 Hon LLD, University of Costa Rica
Jenks was an honorary fellow of Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge and an honorary professor of Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos de Lima and University of Lima.[4]
Contributor to British Yearbook of International Law and to legal journals.