Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan

Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan ( born January 17, 1933, Neuilly -sur -Seine, † 12 May 2003 in Boston) was from 1965 to 1977 the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

He was the son of the late Prince Aga Khan III in 1957. , At that time the head of the Ismaili Muslims, and his second wife, Andrée Joséphine Carron. He was an uncle of Karim Aga Khan IV, 49th Imam of the Ismailis later.

Prince Sadruddin had an Iranian, French and Swiss passport. He spoke fluent French, English, German and Italian.

He studied at Harvard and at the Centre of Middle Eastern Studies. He began his career as editor of Paris Review. From 1958 Sadruddin Aga Khan worked as a consultant for UNESCO. In 1959, he joined the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR ), where he held the post of High Commissioner for Refugees from 1965 to 1977. During his tenure, among others fell refugee crises in Biafra, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Chile. His nomination for the office of the UN Secretary-General failed in 1981 was vetoed by the Soviet Union. From 1988 to 1990 Sadruddin Aga Khan was the coordinator of humanitarian aid projects of the UN in Afghanistan. A re- nomination as UN Secretary-General in 1991 was again unsuccessful.

In 1978 he was awarded the Human Rights Award of the United Nations.

1979 Sadruddin Aga Khan was awarded the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal of Honor of the German Society for the United Nations.

Sadruddin Aga Khan lived mainly in Switzerland. In 1957 he married Nina Dyer ( 1930-1965 ), the divorced wife of Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen- Bornemisza de Kászon, of which he was divorced in 1962. In 1972 he married Katherine Beriketti.

Sadruddin Aga Khan was a collector of Islamic books and works of art. After the end of his UN career he founded in 1977 in Geneva, " Bellerive " Foundation, which is committed to environmental protection, minority rights and peace research. In 1981, he called for global laws against animal testing, which he rejected for ethical reasons.

He died in 2003 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Awards

  • Commander of the French Legion of Honour (1979 )
  • Order of Homayoun First Class (Iran)
  • Order of Star of the Nile (Sudan)
  • Pontifical Order of New Year's Eve ( KCSS )
  • Order of Hilal - e-Pakistan
  • Commander with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland
  • Knight of the British Empire (KBE )
  • Honorary doctorate from the Fletcher School, Tufts University ( 1986)
  • Honorary doctorate from the University of Nice (1988 )
  • Honorary doctorate from the University of Leeds (1992 )
  • Honorary Citizen of the City of Geneva
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