Background
Thornberry was born in Belfast, where he attended Finaghy Primary School and the Methodist College.
Thornberry was born in Belfast, where he attended Finaghy Primary School and the Methodist College.
He studied law at Street Catharine"s College, Cambridge and graduated first with a Bachelor and then with an Bachelor of Laws and became a barrister in 1959.
He spent most of his service in international peace keeping in Cyprus, the Middle East, ex-Yugoslavia and Somalia. Thornberry taught at Cambridge University from 1958, and at the London School of Economics from 1960. He was a foreign correspondent for The Guardian in Greece and was a practising human rights lawyer
Originally from Northern Ireland, he was one of the founders of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association in 1968.
In the 1970s he represented many applicants at the European Court of Human Rights. He was the father of Labour Party Member of Parliament Emily Thornberry.
He stood for the Labour Party in Guildford in 1966. Cedric Thornberry joined the in 1978 and became involved in the internationally-supervised settlement of the Namibia question.
He became Chief of staff of the Transition Assistance Group (United Nations Transition Assistance Group).
During United Nations Transition Assistance Group, he was the Director of the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Namibia, Martti Ahtisaari, and responsible for co-ordination of the Mission’s day-to-day political operation. Until the appointment of an SRSG, he was in charge of UNPROFOR’s political, civil, legal and police activities. He remained head of UNPROFOR’s Civil Affairs until early 1994.
He was a consultant to North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the exercises it conducts with the Partnership for Peace countries and a visiting professor at King"s College in London.
Thornberry also served as the Senior Political and Legal Adviser to United Nations Peace-keeping Force in Cyprus and to United Nations Truce Supervision Organization, and was Director of Administration and Management at United Nations headquarters for 4 years. He was Director of UNPROFOR Civil Affairs at the beginning of the Mission in February 1992, and shortly afterwards became Assistant-Secretary-General of the when he was made Deputy Chief of Mission of the 50,000-person United Nations operation in ex-Yugoslavia as well as senior negotiator with all of the Balkan parties.