Former UN secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali died on Tuesday, at the age of 93, in Al-Salam Hospital in Giza.
President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi issued a statement expressing his condolences to Boutros-Ghali’s family, saying: “Egypt and the world lost a political and legal [figure of] immense value today.”
Boutros-Ghali became the sixth secretary-general of the United Nations on 1 January 1992, serving a five-year term.
The first and only Arab to assume the position as head of the UN, Boutros-Ghali was not elected to a second term due to a United States veto, paving the way for Kofi Anan to succeed him.
Prior to assuming the UN position, Boutros-Ghali served in the Egyptian government as acting minister of foreign affairs twice between 1978 and 1979.
During his tenure at the foreign ministry, Boutros-Ghali attended the Camp David Summit Conference and had a role in negotiating the Camp David accords brokered between Egypt and Israel and were signed in 1979.
He was also among the group that travelled with former president Anwar Sadat in his 1977 visit to Jerusalem.
The veteran diplomat was the founding president of Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) in 2003.
Boutros-Ghali was also a member of parliament and part of the secretariat of the dissolved National Democratic Party (NDP).
