Outstanding Belgians get royal recognition

Belgium is one of the few countries where the king bestows official titles of nobility upon men and women of great merit. These titles come with no extra benefits and are not hereditary, but they are considered a great honour.

Yesterday, on his birthday, King Flip announced the new titles. Antwerp designer Axel Enthoven; climate expert Jean-Pascal van Ypersele de Strihou; Hamid Aït Abderrahim, vice-CEO of the Study Center for Nuclear Energy; and Nordin Maloujahmoum, president of the Muslim Executive, can now call themselves Grand Officer in the Order of the Crown.

The new Commanders in the Order of Leopold, meanwhile, are child psychiatrist Peter Adriaenssens and genetics expert Jean-Jacques Cassiman, both of whom are also professors at the University of Leuven. Flemish historian Sophie De Schaepdrijver, who specialises in the First World War and European history at Pennsylvania State University in the US; Naima Charkaoui, president of the Brussels-based Minorities Forum; and Antwerp choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui are from now on Commander in the Order of the Crown.

Johan Swinnen, former ambassador to Rwanda; Serge Brammertz, prosecutor of the Yugoslavia Tribunal and Jean-Pierre Hansen, president of NMBS Logistics, were knighted by the king, while Herman Daems, president of BNP Paribas-Fortis, and women’s rights activist Jennie Vanlerberghe (pictured), founder of the Ypres-based Mothers for Peace and especially active in Afghanistan, can call themselves baron and baroness, respectively. Paul Buysse, president of steel wire producer Bekaert, who already carried the title of baron and is an intimate of the king, has been promoted to count. 

The title for mining tycoon George Forrest, grand officer in the Order of the Crown, was immediately called into question by politicians and the press. Forrest, who employs 30,000 people in Congo, has been accused of state corruption in the African country. He has been criticised by the UN, the OECD, the Belgian Senate and a number of Belgian non-profits. 11.11.11, the Flemish umbrella of development organisations, has challenged the title for Forrest.

Political party N-VA, meanwhile, called the whole tradition of bestowing royal titles “a medieval practice”.

photo courtesy Mothers for Peace