Hans-Christof von Sponeck

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Hans von Sponeck (2007)

Hans-Christof Graf von Sponeck (* 1939 in Bremen ) is a German UN diplomat , author of political non-fiction books and university professor. From 1968 to 2000 he worked at various locations for the United Nations , most recently in Baghdad (Iraq). He is the son of Lieutenant General Hans von Sponeck , who was murdered by the National Socialists on July 20 .

Life

The son of the Baden count family Sponeck with an officer tradition spanning several generations lost his father at the age of five as a result of the events of July 20, 1944 . In 1957 he was one of the first conscientious objectors in the newly founded Federal Republic of Germany.

Career as a diplomat

Sponeck studied history, demography and cultural anthropology in Germany and the USA. From 1966 to 1968 he worked for the German Foundation for International Cooperation. In 1968 he began a diplomatic career at the United Nations. His countries of assignment in the service of the UN development program UNDP were - in addition to the headquarters in New York and Geneva - Ghana, Pakistan, Turkey, Botswana and India. In mid-1998, he took over from Denis Halliday as the coordinator for humanitarian issues in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Halliday had resigned in protest against UN policies. He described the UN embargo as " genocide ". In Iraq, Sponeck had, among other things responsible for the UN program "Oil for food" ( " Oil for Food ").

In February 2000, he submitted his resignation in protest against the UN Security Council's sanctions policy , which he believed to be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children. He did this together with other top UN officials in accordance with his professional and diplomatic assessment of the situation in Iraq with his predecessor, according to an article they jointly wrote in the British newspaper The Guardian . Graf von Sponeck most recently had the rank of Assistant Secretary General.

Retired Critic

After his retirement from diplomacy, he tried to educate the public about the precarious humanitarian situation in Iraq, which was the plight of the population there even before the US-led second Gulf War. In addition to articles in newspapers and books, he and the Geneva journalist Andreas Zumach wrote the non-fiction book “Iraq - Chronicle of a Wanted War”, which appeared in 2003. In the same year, the Bremen foundation “Die Schwelle” honored him with the “ Bremen Peace Prize ”. In addition to other awards, he received the Coventry Peace Prize of the Church of England in 2000.

In June 2005, von Sponeck participated as an expert in the "World Tribunal on the Iraq War", which is in the tradition of the Russell Tribunals . The 58-member panel of lawyers and war witnesses to which he belonged, with Arundhati Roy as spokeswoman for the jury, in continuation of the meetings in Brussels and New York at the conference venue Istanbul for three days collected statements and analyzes on the contemporary history of the last Iraq war . Speakers stressed that it was not about naming the guilty, but about promoting clarification. Since 2006, von Sponeck has been a lecturer at the Center for Conflict Research at the University of Marburg .

Hans von Sponeck was a council member of the World Future Council founded by Jakob von Uexküll .

Volcker Commission

In 2005, the UN set up a commission of inquiry, the so-called Volcker Commission , to deal with allegations of corruption by UN officials. The behavior of Sponecks was also examined (pages 508–509). In the final report, von Sponeck was acquitted of any suspicion of corruption. It was found that an attempt had been made to bribe him, but he had not been bribed. The report found that, after he left, von Sponeck was supported by a company to advertise the UN embargo policy. The report also notes that von Sponeck had not sought contact with the Iraqi government. Finally, the report recommends drafting contracts with UN employees in such a way that, even after they have left, they could be sanctioned for behavior that contradicts their previous task (page 509).

In an interview with the taz , von Sponeck emphasized that he had received support from the Bauer company after his resignation and that the Bauer company was concerned with the delivery of milk powder, a very legitimate part of the “oil-for-food” program. If there had been stricter rules at the time, he might have deliberately violated the Security Council's sanctions policy in favor of families in need. His resignation in 2000 was a conscious decision for the primary responsibility towards human rights .

Awards

  • 2000 Coventry Peace Prize from the Church of England
  • 2001 Humanitarian Award from the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington
  • 2003 Bremen Peace Prize from the "Die Schwelle" foundation
  • 2010 Honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Marburg
  • 2019 Friedrich II. Von Hohenstaufen Prize for active friendship of peoples and integration of nations

Fonts

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Translation of a Guardian article by Sponeck and Denis Halliday dated November 29, 2001
  2. ↑ Interview on the report of the Volcker Commission (taz October 29, 2005)
personal data
SURNAME Sponeck, Hans-Christof von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sponeck, Hans von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German UN diplomat, lawyer and author
DATE OF BIRTH 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Bremen