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Pugwash recently lost one of its most faithful advocates, Ambassador Omran El Shafei of Egypt, who died on December 18, 2003 in Cairo. A member of Pugwash since 1975, when he attended the Pugwash symposium on Peace and Development in Africa in Cairo, Ambassador El Shafei was for several years the vice-chairman of the Egyptian Pugwash Association. During his more than 25 year involvement with Pugwash, Amb. Shafei attended more than a dozen workshops and annual conferences, most recently the June 2002 workshop on Middle East security held in Alexandria, Egypt. In addition to Pugwash, Amb. El Shafei served as the vice chairman of the Egyptian United Nations Association, and was involved with numerous other organizations dedicated to international peace and human rights, including the Egyptian Red Crescent Society, the Egyptian National Committee on International Humanitarian Law, the Egyptian Economic Society, the Egyptian Chapter of International Development Society, and the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs. From 1948 until his retirement in 1985, Amb. El Shafei had a distinguished and diverse career in the Egyptian Diplomatic Service. His diplomatic postings took him to Belgrade, Sofia, Nicosia, Somalia, Tunis, Leopoldville, New York, and London. He was ambassador of Egypt to Pakistan from 1974-76 and Egypt's permanent representative to the European Office of the United Nations in Geneva. His final post in the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was Assistant Foreign Minister. Upon retirement, Ambassador El Shafei dedicated himself to working on behalf of international peace and security, disarmament, human rights and international humanitarian law. He was appointed by the UN Secretary General to be a member of the advisory board for Disarmament Matters and from 1986 to 1997 he served on the UN Human Rights Committee. Amb. Shafei also headed the Egyptian delegation to the Middle East multilateral peace negotiation on water issues. Last but not least, Amb. Shafei wrote numerous articles on disarmament, non-alignment, human rights and other current affairs issues. The Pugwash community would like to express its deep condolences to his family, colleagues and to all those who knew and admired Ambassador El Shafei.
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