VCDNP Senior Fellow Angela Kane is the recipient of the Göttinger Friedenspreis in 2024, an award honouring outstanding, tangible contributions to international peace. Ms. Kane, who served as UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs before joining the VCDNP, was honoured for her over nearly four-decades long dedication to peace and disarmament efforts, serving the United Nations in a multitude of positions, including in conflict-affected regions.
Ms. Kane received the award during a ceremony on 9 March 2024 at the German National Theatre in Göttingen, Germany. The award was presented by Petra Broistedt, Mayor of Göttingen, and Michael Brzoska, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg. The ceremony was opened by Erich Siedler, director of the German National Theatre. The award speech, honouring Ms. Kane’s lifetime of work for international peace and disarmament, was delivered by Jürgen Trittin, formerly Federal Minister for the Environment and member of the German Bundestag for Göttingen.
"Angela Kane not only deserves this award; she has earned it."
- Jürgen Trittin, former Federal Minister for the Environment, Germany
As UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Ms. Kane played a key role in the investigation of chemical weapons use in Syria, Syria’s accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention, and the subsequent elimination of Syria’s declared chemical weapons stockpile in 2013.
Starting her career at the United Nations in 1977, Ms. Kane later served as Assistant Secretary-General in the Department of Political Affairs, working on conflict prevention and resolution across the world, on decolonisation issues, and in the division for Palestinian rights. Notably, she established the International Commission against Immunity in Guatemala, which assisted national law enforcement dismantle over 70 criminal structures between 2008 and 2019.
In previous capacities, she advised former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali and other senior UN leadership, including on ending the conflict in El Salvador. She also served on several UN missions in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and in postings to Jakarta and Bangkok.
Ms. Kane’s active involvement in disarmament and peace efforts continues to this day, illustrated by her work at the VCDNP, as Vice President of the International Institute for Peace, and as a member of International Group of Eminent Persons for a World without Nuclear Weapons, appointed by Prime Minister Kishida of Japan, among many others.
Other, previous recipients of the Göttinger Friedenspreis include Dr. Egon Bahr, the architect of inter-German détente policy in the 1970s, and the international association of journalists reporting from high-risk locations Reporters Without Borders.
For more information on the Göttinger Friedenspreis, click below (German only).
