25 Facts About Boutros Boutros-Ghali

Boutros Boutros-Ghali was an Egyptian politician and diplomat who served as the sixth Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1992 to 1996.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali oversaw the United Nations over a period coinciding with several world crises, including the breakup of Yugoslavia and the Rwandan genocide.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali was acting foreign minister until early 1991, when he served as deputy foreign minister for a few months.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali's tenure was marked by controversy and crises, which included the Somali Civil War, the Rwandan Civil War, the continuing Angolan Civil War and the Yugoslav Wars.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali received criticism over UN inaction in Angola and during the genocide in Rwanda, and the perceived ineffectiveness of the UN peacekeeping operation in Bosnia led to a NATO intervention.

In 1996, Boutros-Ghali ran unopposed for a second term as secretary-general, but the United States, long dissatisfied with his leadership, denied his bid by exercising its Security Council veto.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali then became chairman of the South Centre, an intergovernmental think tank for developing countries.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali died in 2016, in Cairo at the age of 93.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali was born in Cairo, Egypt, on 14 November 1922 into a Coptic Orthodox Christian family.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali received a PhD in international law from the Faculty of Law of Paris and diploma in international relations from Sciences Po in 1949.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali became President of the Centre of Political and Strategic Studies in 1975 and President of the African Society of Political Studies in 1980.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali was a Fulbright Research Scholar at Columbia University from 1954 to 1955, Director of the Centre of Research at The Hague Academy of International Law from 1963 to 1964, and Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Law of Paris from 1967 to 1968.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali was the Honorary Rector of the Graduate Institute of Peace Studies, a branch of Kyunghee University Seoul.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali was a member of the Central Committee of the Arab Socialist Union from 1974 to 1977.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali served as Egypt's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs from 1977 until early 1991.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali then became Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs for several months before moving to the UN.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali was serving as UN secretary-general when the killings occurred four years later.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali set three goals: for the UN to be more active in promoting democracy, for the UN to conduct preventative diplomacy to avert crises, and to expand the UN's role as peacekeeper.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad called on Boutros-Ghali to resign for failing to take any firm action to help resolve the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali's reputation became entangled in the larger controversies over the effectiveness of the UN and the role of the United States in the UN.

US 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".

Boutros Boutros-Ghali won 14 of the 15 votes in the Security Council, but the sole opposing vote was a US veto.

Finally, Boutros-Ghali suspended his candidacy, becoming the second Secretary-General ever to be denied re-election by a veto, with Kurt Waldheim being the first.

From 1997 to 2002, Boutros-Ghali was Secretary-General of La Francophonie, an organisation of French-speaking nations.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali is buried at Petrine Church in Abbassia, Cairo.