Dr Bernasconi took the office of Secretary General of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) on 1 July 2013. In 2018, he was reappointed for a further term of five years; in March 2023, the Council on General Affairs and Policy of the HCCH recommended that he be reappointed for another five-year term. Dr Bernasconi had joined the Permanent Bureau (PB) in September 1997 and became Deputy Secretary General in July 2011.

He holds a law degree from Fribourg University in Switzerland (magna cum laude; bilingual in German and French), an LL.M. degree in Comparative Law from McGill University in Montreal, Canada (concentration on International Commercial Law, with a Master’s thesis on oligopolies in unfair competition law), and a doctoral degree in Private International Law from Fribourg University (summa cum laude).

He has been actively involved in numerous normative projects and non-normative activities of the HCCH, covering the full range of its mandate, from transnational litigation and Apostille, to international family and child protection law, as well as commercial, digital and finance law. He also designed and administered the successful electronic Apostille Programme (e-APP). As Secretary General, he is focusing on the good governance and strategic development of the HCCH, spearheading efforts towards its universality and inclusiveness.