Boutros Boutros-Ghali

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Boutros Boutros-Ghali
Boutros Boutros-Ghali
In office
1 January 1992 – 31 December 1996
Preceded by Javier Pérez de Cuéllar
Succeeded by Kofi Annan
Born November 14, 1922 (age 84)
Flag of Egypt Cairo, Egypt
Spouse Leia Maria Boutros-Ghali

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.

Contents

[edit] Academic career

Boutros Boutros-Ghali was born in Cairo into a Coptic Christian family ("Boutros" being Coptic 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 Ph.D. 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.

[edit] Egyptian political career

He had 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 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

[edit] UN career

Elected to the top post of the UN in 1992, Boutros-Ghali's term in office remains controversial. He was criticised for the UN's failure to act during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, which officially left about 937,000 people dead, and he appeared unable to muster support in the UN for intervention in the continuing Angolan Civil War. One of the hardest periods for his office during his term was dealing with the crisis of the Yugoslav wars after the disintegration of former Yugoslavia. His reputation thus became entangled in the larger controversies over the effectiveness of the UN and the role of the United States in the UN. For his detractors, he came to symbolise the UN's alleged inaction in the face of humanitarian crises.

[edit] Second term

In 1996, ten Security Council members, led by 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 this resolution, 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 (China vetoed the third term of Kurt Waldheim in 1981), Boutros-Ghali was the first and only UN secretary-general not to be elected to a second term in office. He was succeeded at the UN by Kofi Annan.

[edit] Later life

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, [1] an intergovernmental research organisation of developing countries. He is currently President of the Curatorium Administrative Council at the Hague Academy of International Law.

In an interview on Egyptian television in September 2004, Boutros-Ghali 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. [2]

[edit] Cultural references

Boutros-Ghali's distinctive double name has been used for comedic effect in several television programs. In the UK Comedy series Belive Nothing, the host of a game show is called Boutros-Boutros Ghali (prompting Rik Mayall to ask "Can I call you Boutros-Boutros, Boutros-Boutros?") In 2002, Boutros-Ghali appeared in a segment of Da Ali G Show episode "War". Ali G introduced his guest as "Boutros Boutros Boutros-Ghali" and wrapped up the interview by thanking "Boutros Boutros Boutros Boutros-Ghali" for his participation. Along similar lines, in the early 1990s an episode of the CBC political satire TV show Royal Canadian Air Farce featured an exchange between two characters where, by adding/revealing words to each other one at a time, the conversation ultimately led to the phrase "Boutros Boutros-Ghali's really bally Sally Rally/Gala". The phrase "Boutros Boutros-Ghali" was used as part of a mock parody of the Spanish language in a recurring sketch on the British TV comedy show The Fast Show. "Boutros Boutros-Ghali" appears to have meant "goodbye".

In an episode of Seinfeld titled "The Hamptons", when Jerry and Kramer see George's girlfriend topless, Kramer says "Yo-Yo Ma" to which Jerry responds "Boutros Boutros-Golly!" Boutros-Ghali was a regular feature in the Top 10 list feature on CBS's Late Show with David Letterman. In 1997 a list entitled "Top Ten Ways Celebrities Can Raise 33.5 Million Dollars" included the suggestion that Boutros Boutros-Ghali could "Auction off a 'Boutros'". A May 6th, 1994 Top Ten List entitled "Top Ten Boutros Boutros-Ghali Pick-up Lines" included the entries "Can I can I buy you a drink a drink?", and "It must be fate - you don't have any boutroses, and I've got one to spare!". He was also referred to as "Boutros Boutros-Ghali: the man so nice they named him twice". In the sitcom Family Matters, the character Myra Monkhouse gives her full name as "Myra Boutros-Boutros Monkhouse". Boutros-Ghali was called "one of the most important people in the world" second only to "Flibber Flabber Flinger Boo-Boo" in a strip for Get Fuzzy, written by Darby Conley. The Animaniacs song "U.N. Me" played on Ghali's name in a different way: "Boutrous Boutrous Ghali-gee/Down by the East Riverside/Leads the General Assembly" In the panel quiz Q.I., Stephen Fry informs us the literal translation of Boutros Boutros-Ghali is "Peter Peter- Expensive".

[edit] Works

Boutros-Ghali has published two memoirs:

[edit] Quotes

"It would be some time before I fully realised that the United States sees little need for diplomacy. Power is enough. Only the weak rely on diplomacy… The Roman Empire had no need for diplomacy. Nor does the United States."[3][4]
"The best way to deal with bureaucrats is with stealth and sudden violence."[5]
Preceded by
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar		 UN Secretary-General
1992-1996		 Succeeded by
Kofi Annan
United Nations Secretaries-General
Gladwyn Jebb (acting) | Trygve Lie | Dag Hammarskjöld | U Thant | Kurt Waldheim | Javier Pérez de Cuéllar | Boutros Boutros-Ghali | Kofi Annan | Ban Ki-moon


[edit] See also

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