Nabil Elaraby (; 15 March 1935 – 26 August 2024) was an Egyptian politician and diplomat who was the 7th

Secretary General of the Arab League This is a list of the secretaries-general of the Arab League since its founding in 1945. List of secretaries-general

{{Secretaries-General of the Arab League Secretaries general of the Arab League, * Lists of office-holders, Arab League, Se ...

from 1 July 2011 to 3 July 2016. Elaraby also had roles in the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

, holding positions at the

United Nations Institute for Training and Research The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) is a dedicated training arm of the United Nations system. UNITAR provides training and capacity development activities to assist mainly developing countries with special attention ...

and serving as a Permanent Representative to the United Nations. Elaraby served as one of the liaisons between the protesters and the government during the 2011 Egyptian protests, and played a key role in pressing for the removal of President

Hosni Mubarak Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011 and the 41st Prime Minister of Egypt, prime minister from 1981 to ...

. Afterwards, he served as the Foreign Affairs Minister of Egypt in Essam Sharaf's post-revolution

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

from March to June 2011. Elaraby also served on the United Nations Compensation Commission in Geneva from 1999 to 2001, and was a member of the

International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; , CIJ), or colloquially the World Court, is the only international court that Adjudication, adjudicates general disputes between nations, and gives advisory opinions on International law, internation ...

from 2001 to February 2006. He was honored with the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Arab Republic of Egypt and as the Grand Officier of the Order of the Republic of

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

Personal life

Elaraby was born on 15 March 1935. He held a J.S.D. (1971) and an LL.M. (1969) from the New York University School of Law and a

law degree A law degree is an academic degree conferred for studies in law. Some law degrees are professional degrees that are prerequisites or serve as preparation for legal careers. These generally include the Bachelor of Civil Law, Bachelor of Laws, an ...

from

Cairo University Cairo University () is Egypt's premier public university. Its main campus is in Giza, immediately across the Nile from Cairo. It was founded on 21 December 1908;"Brief history and development of Cairo University." Cairo University Faculty of En ...

's Faculty of Law (1955). Elaraby died on 26 August 2024, at the age of 89.

Career

Elaraby was a partner at Zaki Hashem & Partners in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

, specialising in negotiations and arbitration.

Egyptian government

Elaraby was legal adviser and director in the Legal and Treaties Department of the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

from 1976 to 1978 and then Ambassador to India from 1981 to 1983. He then returned to his previous post at the Foreign Ministry from 1983 to 1987. He was legal adviser to the Egyptian delegation to the Camp David Middle East peace conference in 1978, head of the Egyptian delegation to the Taba negotiations from 1985 to 1989, and Agent of the Egyptian Government to the Egyptian-Israeli arbitration tribunal ( Taba dispute) from 1986 to 1988. He was appointed by the Egyptian Minister of Justice to the list of arbitrators in civil and commercial affairs in Egypt in 1995.United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Election of a member of the International Court of Justice Curricula vitae of candidates nominated by national groups Note by the Secretary-General (2001) UN Doc A/56/374–S/2001/883
. Retrieved August 26, 2024 He was Egypt's top negotiator at the

Taba Summit The Taba Summit (also known as Taba Talks, Taba Conference or shortened to Taba) were talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, held from 21 to 27 January 2001 in Taba, Egypt. The talks took place during a political transition period � ...

in 2001.

United Nations

In 1968, Elaraby was an Adlai Stevenson Fellow in International Law at the

(UNITAR). He was appointed a Special Fellow in International Law at UNITAR in 1973, and was legal adviser to the Egyptian delegation to the United Nations Geneva Middle East peace conference from 1973 to 1975. Elaraby was Egypt's Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York from 1978 to 1981, the Permanent Representative to the UN Office at

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

from 1987 to 1991, the Permanent Representative to the UN in New York from 1991 to 1999, a member of the

International Law Commission The International Law Commission (ILC) is a body of experts responsible for helping develop and codify international law. It is composed of 34 individuals recognized for their expertise and qualifications in international law, who are elected by t ...

of the

from 1994 to 2004, President of the

Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...

in 1996, and vice-president of the General Assembly in 1993, 1994 and 1997. He was a commissioner at the United Nations Compensation Commission in Geneva from 1999 to 2001, and a member of the

from 2001 to February 2006. Elaraby served as chairman for the First (Disarmament and international security questions) Committee of the General Assembly, the Informal Working Group on an Agenda for Peace, the Working Group on Legal Instruments for the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, and the UN Special Committee on Enhancing the Principle of the Prohibition of the Use of Force in International Relations.

Other international work

Vladimir Putin in the Netherlands 2 November 2005-5

Elaraby was an Arbitrator at the International Chamber of Commerce International Court of Arbitration in Paris in a dispute concerning the Suez Canal from 1989 to 1992. He was a judge in the Judicial Tribunal of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries in 1990. Elaraby was a member of the governing board of the

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) is an international institute based in Stockholm, Sweden. It was founded in 1966 and provides data, analysis and recommendations for armed conflict, military expenditure and arms trade a ...

from 2000 to 2010. Beginning in December 2008 he served as the Director of the Regional Cairo Centre for International Commercial Arbitration and as a counsel of the Sudanese government in the "

Abyei The Abyei Area () is an area of on the border between South Sudan and Sudan that has been accorded "special administrative status" by the 2004 Protocol on the Resolution of the Abyei Conflict (Abyei Protocol) in the Comprehensive Peace Agree ...

Boundary" Arbitration between the Government of Sudan and the Sudanese People's Revolutionary Movement.

2011 Egyptian revolution and transitional government

Nabil Elaraby was one of the group of about 30 high-profile Egyptians acting as liaison between the protesters and the government, and pressing for the removal of President

.Elaraby in Egypt's "council of the wise"
, Alison Ross, ''Global Arbitration Review'', 9 February 2011 International Conference in Support of the New Libya 34

International Conference in Support of the New Libya 34

At a democracy forum on 25 February 2011, he said the Egyptian government suffered from a lack of separation of powers, a lack of transparency and a lack of judicial independence. He said foreign policy should be based on Egypt's interests, including "holding Israel accountable when it does not respect its obligations." On 6 March 2011, he was appointed Foreign Affairs Minister of Egypt in Essam Sharaf's post-

revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

cabinet. Thereafter, he opened the

Rafah Border Crossing The Rafah Border Crossing () or Rafah Crossing Point is the sole crossing point between Egypt and Palestine's Gaza Strip. The Rafah crossing was opened by Israel after the Egypt–Israel peace treaty, 1979 peace treaty and remained under Isra ...

with Gaza and brokered the reconciliation of

Hamas The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...

with

Fatah Fatah ( ; ), formally the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (), is a Palestinian nationalist and Arab socialist political party. It is the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and ...

Arab League

On 15 May 2011, he was appointed Secretary General of the Arab League, succeeding

Amr Moussa Amr Moussa (, , Amr Muhammad Moussa; born 3 October 1936) is an Egyptian politician and diplomat who was the Secretary General of the Arab League, Secretary-General of the Arab League, a 22-member forum representing Arab World, Arab states, from ...

. He officially took office on 1 July 2011 and served until 3 July 2016.

Honours

Publications

* ''Taba, Camp David, Israeli West Bank barrier : From United Nations Security Council to the International Court of Justice'' (), ed. Dar al-Chorouq, Cairo, 2017.

References

External links

* at the

*
Egypt’s foreign minister on the way forward after Mubarak
Lally Weymouth, ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', 6 May 2011
Nabil El-Arabi – justice-based diplomacy
Dina Ezzat, '' Al-Ahram Weekly'', 19 May 2011 , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Araby, Nabil 1935 births 2024 deaths Ambassadors of Egypt to India Cairo University alumni 20th-century Egyptian judges Egyptian Muslims Ministers of foreign affairs of Egypt International Court of Justice judges New York University School of Law alumni Politicians from Cairo Permanent representatives of Egypt to the United Nations Secretaries general of the Arab League Egyptian judges of United Nations courts and tribunals 20th-century Egyptian diplomats 21st-century Egyptian diplomats