Boutros Boutros-Ghali


Boutros-Ghali, Boutros

(bo͞o`trōs, gä`lē), 1922–2016, Egyptian statesman, secretary-general of the United NationsUnited Nations
(UN), international organization established immediately after World War II. It replaced the League of Nations. In 1945, when the UN was founded, there were 51 members; 193 nations are now members of the organization (see table entitled United Nations Members).
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 (1992–96). Born into a politically connected Coptic Christian family, he earned degrees in law at the universities of Cairo (LL.B., 1946) and Paris (Ph.D., 1949). He was (1949–79) professor of international relations at Cairo Univ. A member of numerous academic and diplomatic organizations, he was present (1978) at the Egypt-Israel Camp David accordsCamp David accords,
popular name for the peace treaty forged in 1978 between Israel and Egypt at the U.S. presidential retreat at Camp David, Md. The official agreement was signed on Mar. 26, 1979, in Washington, D.C.
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 negotiations. He also served as Egypt's delegate to the United Nations and other international bodies and conferences. A member of the Egyptian parliament (1987–91), Boutros-Ghali became Egypt's minister of state for foreign affairs (1977–91) and deputy prime minister for foreign affairs (1991). The first African and Arab head of the United Nations, he moved to reorganize and streamline the UN Secretariat and strengthen the UN's peacekeeping role, but failed to adequately deal with civil war in Somalia and genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia. In 1996, after severe policy disagreements, mainly with the United States, he was unable to secure a second term. He served as secretary-general of La FrancophonieFrancophonie, La,
officially the International Organization of the Francophonie,
Fr. Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), an intergovernmental organization of mainly French-speaking nations and regions that promotes the education and culture of
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, an organization of French-speaking nations, from 1997 to 2002, and later was chairman of South Centre, overseeing research for developing countries.

Bibliography

See his Egypt's Road to Jerusalem (1997) and Unvanquished: A U.S.-UN Saga (1999).