Profile: Former UN chief Boutros Boutros-Ghali

UNITED NATIONS - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday hailed former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali as "a respected statesman" and expressed sadness at his predecessor's death.

"The late Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, was a respected statesman in the service of his country, Egypt," Ban said.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the sixth UN Secretary-General, died at 93 in Egypt Tuesday.

Boutros-Ghali, an Egyptian politician and diplomat, served as the sixth UN chief from 1992 to 1996. Born in Cairo on Nov 14, 1922, he was the first Arab to serve as UN Secretary-General.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday hailed Boutros-Ghali as "a respected statesman in the service of his country, Egypt." The Security Council observed a minute of silence Tuesday morning.

Ban praised him for guiding the Organization through the tumultuous early 1990's and for helping shape the UN's response to post-Cold War realities, drafting a seminal report on preventive diplomacy, peacemaking and peacekeeping.

He showed courage in posing difficult questions to the member states, and rightly insisted on the independence of his office and of the Secretariat as a whole, said Ban.

Also during his tenure, he spearheaded UN structural and management reform.

After returning to Egypt, Boutros-Ghali headed the state's National Council for Human Rights under former long-time President Hosni Mubarak. Boutros-Ghali later resigned in 2011, the year Mubarak was ousted by a popular uprising.

According to UN website, Boutros-Ghali received a Ph.D. in international law from Paris University in 1949. Between 1949 and 1977, he was Professor of International Law and International Relations at Cairo University. From 1974 to 1977, he was a member of the Central Committee and Political Bureau of the Arab Socialist Union.

From 1979 to 1991, he was a member of the International Law Commission, and was a former member of the International Commission of Jurists. He became a member of the Egyptian Parliament in 1987 and was part of the secretariat of the National Democratic Party from 1980. Until assuming the office of Secretary-General of the United Nations, he was also Vice-President of the Socialist International.

In September 1978, Boutros-Ghali attended the Camp David Summit Conference and had a role in negotiating the Camp David accords between Egypt and Israel, which were signed in 1979. He also headed Egypt's delegation to the General Assembly sessions in 1979, 1982 and 1990.

During Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to Egypt in January this year, Xi met with 10 people awarded for their outstanding contribution to the China-Egypt friendship, including former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.