At the 28th SCM (19-20 January, 2002), Mr. Erkin Alptekin, General Secretary, requested its members to appoint Mr. Karl von Habsurg with immediate effect as Director-General.
This is a newly created senior position within the UNPO, aimed at further enhancing the fundamental rights of its Members world-wide.

Mr. Von Habsburg is the eldest son of Otto von Habsburg and Regina, Princess of Sachsen-Meiningen.

Since 1974, Mr. Von Habsburg has been actively involved in the Pan European Movement in Austria, and was elected the organization’s President in 1986. Both in this capacity, and as assistant to the former Prime Minister of Bavaria, Dr. Alfons Goppel, MEP, Mr. Von Habsburg gained extensive experience on issues concerning, for example, the rights of ethnic minorities in Europe.

As Member of the European Parliament from 1996 – 1999, Mr. Von Habsburg continued to devote his talents to the minority groups’ struggle for liberty rights and freedom, serving inter alia, as expert on minority rights for the Christian Democratic Group (EPP).

Mr. Von Habsburg’s expertise will be of great value to the UNPO in its objective to provide an international platform to occupied nations, indigenous peoples and minority groups united in their struggle for the recognition of their fundamental right to self-determination, both in Europe and world-wide. Mr. Von Habsburg (41) currently lives in Salzburg, Austria, and is married to Francesca, née Baroness Thyssen-Bornemisza. The couple has three children.