Boutros Boutros-Ghali
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Boutros Boutros-Ghali CC (Arabic: بطرس بطرس غالي) (born November 14, 1922) is an Egyptian diplomat who was the sixth Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1992 to December 1996. He is the brother of Egyptian writer Waghuih Ghali (deceased).
Academic career
Boutros-Ghali was born in Cairo into a Coptic Christian family ("Boutros" being Arabic for "Peter") that had already provided Egypt with a prime minister (Boutros Ghali, 1846–1910). He graduated from Cairo University in 1946 and earned a PhD in international law from the University of Paris as well as a diploma in international relations from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (best known as simply Sciences Po) in 1949. The same year, he was appointed Professor of International Law and International Relations at Cairo University, a position which he held until 1977. 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.Egyptian political career
He had served as Egypt's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs from 1977 until early 1991. He then became Deputy Prime 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 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.UN career
Elected to the top post of the UN in 1992, Boutros-Ghali's term in office remains controversial. He was criticized for the UN's failure to act during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which ultimately killed about 800,000 people, and he appeared unable to muster support in the UN for intervention in the continuing civil war in Angola. One of the hardest periods for his office during the first term, was certainly one of resolving the crisis and the UN diplomatic and humanitarian work during the civil war in former Yugoslavia. His reputation thus became entangled in the larger controversies over the effectiveness of the UN and the role of the US in the UN. For his detractors, he came to symbolize the UN's alleged inaction in the face of humanitarian crises, while his defenders often accused the US of blocking UN action.Second term
In 1996, ten Security Council members, led by three African members (Egypt, Guinea-Bissau and Botswana) sponsored a resolution backing Boutros-Ghali for a second five-year term, until the year 2001. However, the United States vetoed a second term for Boutros-Ghali. In addition to the United States, the United Kingdom, Poland, South Korea, and Italy did not sponsor the resolution for a second term, although all four of those nations voted in support of Boutros-Ghali (after the US had firmly declared its intention to veto). Although not the first vetoed, Boutros-Ghali was the first UN secretary-general to not be elected to a second term in office. It is believed that the decision by the US to veto his re-election was due to the fact that the UN published during that year a report condemning the military actions of Israel in southern Lebanon: Israel had bombed a refugee camp led by the UN in that area and the report accused Israel of doing this deliberately.Boutros-Ghali was succeeded at the UN by Kofi Annan. Since Boutros-Ghali was not given a second term, a successor was chosen from his region, Africa.
Later life
From 1997 to 2002 Boutros-Ghali was Secretary-General of La Francophonie, an organization of French-speaking nations. He is currently President of the Curatorium Administrative Council at the Hague Academy of International Law.In 2002, Boutros-Ghali appeared in a segment on Da Ali G Show in which unsuspecting prominent figures are asked silly questions. On Da Ali G Show, he recited the rap, "My name is Boutros Boutros-Ghali, put down your guns and listen to Bob Marley." He was also made a household name in the United Kingdom thanks to the popular TV comedy sketch show The Fast Show. In addition, in an episode of Seinfeld titled The Hamptons, when Jerry sees George's girlfriend topless, he exclaims "Boutros Boutros-Ghali!".
In September 2004, Boutros-Ghali, in an interview on Egyptian television, called the United States a "totalitarian regime" in its dealings with the rest of the world, according to a translation provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute. [link]
Works
Boutros-Ghali has published two memoirs:- Egypt's road to Jerusalem (1997), about the Israel-Egypt peace settlement
- [[Unvanquished: A U.S.-U.N. Saga]] (1999), about his time as Secretary-General at the UN
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