Boutros Boutros-Ghali

Boutros Boutros-Ghali
6th Secretary-General of the United Nations
In office
1 January 1992 – 31 December 1996
Preceded by Javier Pérez de Cuéllar
Succeeded by Kofi Annan
1st Secretary-General of La Francophonie
In office
16 November 1997 – 31 December 2002
Preceded by Position established
Succeeded by Abdou Diouf
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Acting
In office
17 September 1978 – 17 February 1979
Prime Minister Mamdouh Salem
Mustafa Khalil
Preceded by Muhammad Ibrahim Kamel
Succeeded by Mustafa Khalil
In office
17 November 1977 – 15 December 1977
Prime Minister Mamdouh Salem
Preceded by Ismail Fahmi
Succeeded by Muhammad Ibrahim Kamel
Personal details
Born (1922-11-14)14 November 1922
Cairo, Egypt
Died 16 February 2016(2016-02-16) (aged 93)
Cairo, Egypt
Political party Arab Socialist (Before 1978)
National Democratic (1978–2011)
Independent (2011–2016)
Spouse(s) Leia Maria Boutros-Ghali
Alma mater Cairo University
University of Paris
Institute of Political Studies, Paris
Signature

Boutros Boutros-Ghali (/ˈbuːtrɒs ˈɡɑːli/; Coptic: Ⲡⲉⲧⲣⲟⲥ Ⲡⲉⲧⲣⲟⲥ-Ⲅⲁⲗⲓ, Arabic: بطرس بطرس غالي‎ Buṭrus Buṭrus Ghālī, Egyptian Arabic: [ˈbotɾos ˈɣæːli]; 14 November 1922 – 16 February 2016) was an Egyptian politician and diplomat who was the sixth Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) from January 1992 to December 1996. An academic and former Vice Foreign Minister of Egypt, Boutros-Ghali oversaw the UN at a time when it dealt with several world crises, including the breakup of Yugoslavia and the Rwandan genocide. He was then the first Secretary-General of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie from 16 November 1997 to 31 December 2002.

Early life and education

Boutros Boutros-Ghali was born in Cairo on 14 November 1922 into a Coptic Christian family.[1] His father Yusuf Butros Ghali was the son of Boutros Ghali Pasha (also his namesake), who was Prime Minister of Egypt from 1908 until he was assassinated in 1910.[2][3] His mother Safela Mikhail Sharubim was daughter of Mikhail Sharubim (1861–1920), a prominent public servant and historian.[4]

Boutros-Ghali graduated from Cairo University in 1946.[5] He received a PhD in international law from the University of Paris and diploma in international relations from the Sciences Po in 1949. During 1949–1979, he was appointed Professor of International Law and International Relations at Cairo University. He became President of the Centre of Political and Strategic Studies in 1975 and President of the African Society of Political Studies in 1980. He was a Fulbright Research Scholar at Columbia University from 1954 to 1955, Director of the Centre of Research of the Hague Academy of International Law from 1963 to 1964, and Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Law at Paris University from 1967 to 1968. In 1986 he received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Law at Uppsala University, Sweden.[6] He was also the Honorary Rector of the Graduate Institute of Peace Studies, a branch of Kyunghee University Seoul.

Political career

Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Moshe Dayan at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg (October 1979)

Boutros Boutros-Ghali's political career developed during the presidency of Anwar El Sadat. He was a member of the Central Committee of the Arab Socialist Union from 1974 to 1977. He served as Egypt's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs from 1977 until early 1991. He then became Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs for several months before moving to the UN. As Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, he played a part in the peace agreements between President Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.[7]

According to investigative journalist Linda Melvern, Boutros-Ghali approved a secret $26 million arms sale to the government of Rwanda in 1990 when he was Foreign Minister, the weapons stockpiled by the Hutu regime as part of the fairly public, long-term preparations for the subsequent genocide. He was serving as UN Secretary-General when the killings occurred four years later.[8]

Secretary-General of the United Nations (1992-1996)

1991 selection

Boutros-Ghali ran for Secretary-General of the United Nations in the 1991 selection. The top post in the UN was opening up as Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru reached the end of his second term, and Africa was next in the rotation. Boutros-Ghali tied Bernard Chidzero of Zimbabwe in the first two rounds of polling, edged ahead by one vote in round 3, and fell behind by one vote in round 4. After several countries withdrew their support for Chidzero, fed by fears that the United States was trying to eliminate both of the leading candidates, Boutros-Ghali won a clear victory in round 5.[9]

First term

Boutros-Ghali's term in office remains controversial. In 1992, he submitted An Agenda for Peace, a suggestion for how the UN could respond to violent conflict. However, he was criticised for the UN's failure to act during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, which officially left over one million people dead, and he appeared unable to muster support in the UN for intervention in the continuing Angolan Civil War. One of the hardest tasks during his term was dealing with the crisis of the Yugoslav Wars after the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia. His reputation became entangled in the larger controversies over the effectiveness of the UN and the role of the United States in the UN.

Some Somalis believed he was responsible for an escalation of the Somalia crisis by undertaking a personal vendetta against Mohamed Farrah Aidid and his Habr Gidr clan, favouring their rivals, the Darod the clan of the former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. It was believed that he demanded the 12 July 1993 US helicopter attack on a meeting of Habr Gidr clan leaders, who were meeting to discuss a peace initiative put forward by the leader of the UN Mission in Mogadishu, retired U.S. Admiral Jonathan Howe. It is generally believed that the majority of the clan elders were eager to arrange a peace and to rein in the provocative activities of their clan leader, Mohamed Farrah Aidid, but, after this attack on a peaceful meeting, the clan was resolved on fighting the Americans and the UN, leading to the Battle of Mogadishu on 3–4 October 1993.[10]

Second term vetoed

Boutros-Ghali ran unopposed for the customary second term in 1996, despite efforts by the United States to unseat him. U.S. ambassador Madeleine Albright asked Boutros-Ghali to resign and offered to establish a foundation for him to run, an offer that other Western diplomats called "ludicrous."[11] American diplomatic pressure also had no effect, as other members of the Security Council remained unwavering in their support for Boutros-Ghali. He won 14 of the 15 votes in the Security Council, but the sole negative vote was a U.S. veto.[12][13] After four deadlocked meetings of the Security Council, France offered a compromise in which Boutros-Ghali would be appointed to a short term of two years, but the United States rejected the French offer. Finally, Boutros-Ghali suspended his candidacy, becoming the only Secretary-General ever to be denied a second term by a veto.

Later life

Boutros Boutros-Ghali's wife, Leia Maria Boutros-Ghali, née Leia Nadler, was raised in an Egyptian Jewish family in Alexandria and converted to Catholicism as a young woman.[5][14]

From 1997 to 2002, Boutros-Ghali was Secretary-General of La Francophonie, an organisation of French-speaking nations. From 2003 to 2006, he served as the chairman of the board of the South Centre,[15] an intergovernmental research organisation of developing countries. Boutros-Ghali played a "significant role"[16] in creating Egypt's National Council for Human Rights, and served as its president until 2012.[17][18]

Boutros-Ghali supported the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly and was one of the initial signatories of the Campaign's appeal in 2007. In a message to the Campaign, he stressed the necessity to establish democratic participation of citizens at the global level.[19] From 2009-2015 he also participated as jury member for the Conflict Prevention Prize, awarded every year by the Fondation Chirac.[20]

Death

Boutros-Ghali died aged 93 in a hospital in Cairo, after having been admitted for a broken pelvis or leg, on 16 February 2016.[21][22][23][24] A military funeral was held for him with prayers led by Coptic Pope Tawadros II. He is buried at Petrine Church in Abbassia, Cairo.[25]

Honorary degrees

Awards and recognition

Honours

Egyptian national honours

Foreign honors

Published works

As Secretary-General, Boutros-Ghali wrote An Agenda for Peace. He has also published other memoirs:

  • The Arab League, 1954-1955 : Ten years of struggle, ed. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, New York, 1954
  • New Dimensions of Arms Regulations and Disarmament in the Post Cold War, ed. United Nations, New York, 1992
  • An Agenda for Development, ed. United Nations, New York, 1995
  • Confronting New Challenges, ed. United Nations, New York, 1995
  • Fifty Years of the United Nations, ed. William Morrow, New York, 1995
  • The 50th anniversary : Annual report on the work of the Organization, ed. United Nations, New York, 1996
  • An Agenda for Democratization, ed. United Nations, New York, 1997
  • Egypt's Road to Jerusalem: A Diplomat's Story of the Struggle for Peace in the Middle East, ed. Random House, New York, 1998
  • Essays on Leadership, (with George H. W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, Desmond Tutu), ed. Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, Washington, 1998
  • Unvanquished: A US-UN Saga, ed. I.B.Tauris, New York, 1999
  • The Arab League, 1945-1955: International Conciliation,, ed. Literary Licensing Publisher, London, 2013

See also

References

Citations

  1. ↑ Boutros Boutros-Ghali Biography, Encyclopedia of World Biography
  2. ↑ Reid, Donald M. (1982). "Political Assassination in Egypt, 1910–1954". The International Journal of African Historical Studies. 15 (4): 625–651. doi:10.2307/217848. JSTOR 217848.
  3. ↑ Goldschmidt 1993, pp.183,188
  4. ↑ Goldschmidt 1993 p.183
  5. 1 2 Goshko, John M. (2016-02-16). "Boutros Boutros-Ghali, U.N. secretary general who clashed with U.S., dies at 93". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2016-02-16.
  6. ↑ "Honorary doctorates - Uppsala University, Sweden". www.uu.se (in Swedish). Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  7. ↑ "Boutros Boutros-Ghali: The world is his oyster". Weekly Ahram. 18 January 2006. Archived from the original on 30 June 2012. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  8. ↑ Melvern, Linda (2000). A People Betrayed: The Role of the West in Rwanda's Genocide. London: Zed. ISBN 1-85649-830-1. Washington Monthly Review
  9. ↑ Lewis, Paul (23 November 1991). "How U.N. Nominee Won: 4 Switched". The New York Times.
  10. ↑ Bowden, Mark (1999). Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War. New York: New American Library. pp. 83–84. ISBN 0-451-20514-6.
  11. ↑ Crossette, Barbara (5 December 1996). "U.N. Leader Halts Bid for New Term but Does Not Quit". The New York Times.
  12. ↑ Goshko, John M. (19 November 1996). "U.S. Sides Against Second Term for U.N. Chief in Informal Vote". The Washington Post.
  13. ↑ Crossette, Barbara (20 November 1996). "Round One in the U.N. Fight: A U.S. Veto of Boutros-Ghali". The New York Times.
  14. ↑ "At Home With: Boutros Boutros-Ghali".
  15. ↑ "South Centre website". Southcentre.org. 8 June 2012. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  16. ↑ "Egypt: NCHR Mourns Death of Boutros Ghali". allAfrica.
  17. ↑ "Boutros Boutros-Ghali: Make diplomacy, not war". Al Jazeera.
  18. ↑ "Who's who in Egypt's reshuffled Human Rights Council". Ahram Online.
  19. ↑ "MESSAGE FROM DR. BOUTROS BOUTROS GHALI" (PDF). International campaign for the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly.
  20. ↑ "The jury for the Conflict Prevention Prize awarded by the Fondation Chirac". Fondationchirac.eu. 30 May 2012. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  21. ↑ "Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former UN head, dies at 93". BBC News. Retrieved 2016-02-16.
  22. ↑ "Boutros Boutros-Ghali: Make diplomacy, not war". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2016-02-18.
  23. ↑ "Former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali dies - CNN.com". CNN. Retrieved 2016-02-18.
  24. ↑ "Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Former U.N. Secretary General, Dies at 93". Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  25. ↑ "Boutros-Ghali to be buried at family's Italian-style church - Egypt Independent". Egypt Independent. 2016-02-17. Retrieved 2018-03-17.

Sources

  • Goldschmidt, Arthur (1993). "The Butrus Ghali Family". Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt. 30: 183–188. doi:10.2307/40000236. ISSN 0065-9991. JSTOR 40000236. (Subscription required (help)).
Political offices
Preceded by
Ismail Fahmi		 Minister of Foreign Affairs
Acting
1977		 Succeeded by
Muhammad Ibrahim Kamel
Preceded by
Muhammad Ibrahim Kamel		 Minister of Foreign Affairs
Acting
1978–1979		 Succeeded by
Mustafa Khalil
Positions in intergovernmental organisations
Preceded by
Peru Javier Pérez de Cuéllar		 United NationsSecretary General of the United Nations
1992–1996		 Succeeded by
Ghana Kofi Annan
Preceded by
Jean-Louis Roy
as Secretary General of the Agence de Coopération Culturelle et Technique		 Secretary General of La Francophonie
1997–2002		 Succeeded by
Abdou Diouf
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