Childhood and education Born in
Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, he was the only child of
Sultan Mahomed Shah (known by his title Aga Khan III) and his third wife, the French-born wife Andrée Joséphine Carron. He received his early education in
Lausanne, Switzerland, before graduating
Phi Beta Kappa in 1954 from
Harvard College. At Harvard, he lived in Eliot House with
Paul Matisse, grandson of French artist
Henri Matisse, with future
Paris Review founders
George Plimpton and
John Train, and with
Stephen Joyce, grandson of Irish writer
James Joyce. Along with Plimpton, he was an editor for the
Harvard Lampoon. After three years of post-graduate research at the Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Sadruddin began a career in international service. He described Iran as the cradle of his family, though he never lived there. When he was a child, his paternal grandmother used to recite to him the great epic poems of Persian history.
UNESCO Sadruddin joined the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1958, and became the Executive Secretary to its International Action Committee for the Preservation of
Nubia in 1961. This initiative brought together archaeologists from Eastern Europe and the West at the height of the
Cold War. The construction of the
Aswan Dam threatened
ancient Egyptian treasures including
Abu Simbel, the temples of
Philae and Kalabsha, and the Christian churches of Nubia. He would later describe it as "one of UNESCO's great achievements" because of the challenging historical context in which it took place—in particular the ongoing tensions in the Middle East and the Cold War. The initiative became known for its
Stamp Plan, a
philatelic programme that raised funds through United Nations member countries, as well as the support of the
Universal Postal Union. At the time, the UNHCR's resources were primarily focused on supporting
refugees crossing from Eastern Europe. For the next twelve years he directed the UN refugee agency through one of its most difficult periods, coordinating the international response to the
1971 Bangladesh crisis that uprooted people, the
1972 exodus of hundreds of thousands of
Hutus from Burundi to Tanzania, and the
Vietnamese boat people tragedy of the mid-1970s. In 1972, Sadruddin played a key role in finding new homes for tens of thousands of
South Asians expelled from Uganda by
Idi Amin. In September 1990, he was appointed Personal Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Humanitarian Assistance Relating to the Crisis between Iraq and Kuwait. During this period, he negotiated with Iraqi officials, including Foreign Minister
Tariq Aziz, to establish a UN relief program for Shia Muslims in the marshlands of southern Iraq, despite the Iraqi government’s reluctance to coordinate with the UN. It found inspiration in the system of national parks of the
Canadian Rockies. ==Death and remembrance==