Name Gudrun Kugler | ||
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Gudrun Veronika Kugler, née Lang, also known as Kugler-Lang (born 1976, Gmunden, Upper Austria) is a Roman Catholic theologian and jurist. Kugler teaches theology and is active in the pro-life movement and works against social discrimination and Persecution of Christians in Europe and worldwide.
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Political and business activities
Kugler holds master's degrees in law and women's studies and a doctorate in International Law. In 1999 she earned her Master’s of Theological Studies on Marriage and the Family.
From 2001 to 2004 she worked in Brussels as the first director of the World Youth Alliance-Europe representing 1.5 million young people from 100 countries at the EU and UN.
In January 2005, she and her husband founded Kairos-Consulting a company based in Vienna which focuses on charitable initiatives.
In April 2010, Kugler was elected a member of the Advisory Panel of the Fundamental Rights Platform (a form of co-operation of EU Fundamental Rights Agency with NGOs), for a period of two years.
In 2005 Kugler ran as an independent candidate for the Austrian People's Party at the Vienna municipal elections and earned the most votes after the top candidate Johannes Hahn (currently Austria's EU Commissioner). In this context, abortion advocates and pro-life activists accused each other of fundamentalism.
Christian activities
Together with other Christian intellectuals Kugler founded "Europe for Christ!", an initiative to encourage Christians to be aware of their responsibilities in the political forum. She also established the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe, www.intoleranceagainstchristians.eu.
Kugler attended the first meeting of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights on "intolerance and discrimination against Christians" as a representative of the Documentation Centre.
Kugler has stated that "intolerance against Christians by negative stereotyping and discrimination by denial of rights are on the rise".
Since 2008 Kugler has taught as an adjunct professor at the International Theological Institute in Vienna, Austria. She founded and ran the youth academy of the Dr Karl-Kummer Institute. In 2010, she and Denis Borel edited the book "Entdeckung der Freundschaft" (German: the discovery of friendship) in honor of the 65th Birthday of Cardinal Christoph Schönborn.
Awards
Kugler received the Leopold Kunschak Prize for her dissertation, and the prize of the foundation "Ja zum Leben" (German: "'yes' to life") for her work in Brussels.