Hildebrando Pompeu Pinto Accioly

Hildebrando Pompeu Pinto Accioly combined diplomacy with international law scholarship. Born in Fortaleza in 1888, he graduated in law in 1908 and entered the foreign service in 1914. He worked with Brazil’s delegation to the League of Nations and on boundary questions, then served as chargé in Washington in 1934. Senior posts followed in Bucharest, at Itamaraty, and at the Vatican, where he was ambassador from 1939 to 1944. ¹

His Vatican assignment involved negotiations over visas for Jewish refugees converted to Catholicism. According to historian Jair Santos, Accioly challenged the false official assertion that the agreed visa quota had been exhausted, yet in earlier memoranda he supported restrictive immigration policies and made antisemitic arguments. ²

After the war, Accioly directed the Rio Branco Institute, again served as secretary-general of the Foreign Ministry, and acted as foreign minister in 1947 and 1948. His later work included the OAS, conciliation commissions, and the Permanent Court of Arbitration. He taught public international law and served as Itamaraty’s legal adviser. ¹

His publications ranged from studies of Brazil’s recognition and boundaries to the multivolume Tratado de direito internacional público and a later Manual. He retired in 1953 but continued international assignments, and died in 1962. ¹