User:Hassan Abdel-Hamid

Shaffie Abdel-Hamid (Mohamed El-Shaffie Abdel-Hamid): Egyptian diplomat (1927 – 1997). After completing law school at Cairo University, he joined the Egyptian Foreign Service and became vice consul of Egypt in Paris in 1951. From 1957 to 1960, and again from 1964 to 1969 he served at the permanent mission of Egypt to the United Nations. In 1969, he returned to Egypt as head of the international organizations section at the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and represented Egypt at many international conferences such as the Non-Aligned Movement, the Islamic Conference, the Law of the Sea Conference, the African Union and others. In 1973, he became legal counsel of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry. From 1974 to 1980, he was ambassador of Egypt to the Holy See. He returned to Egypt in September 1980 and became head of the State Information Service, a position he occupied until October 1981. In 1982, he became Assistant Foreign Minister for Arab and Parliamentary Affairs, and was involved in the peace process between Egypt and Israel as part of the negotiating team on the return of the Sinai peninsula and the Taba enclave. From 1984 to 1987, he was ambassador of Egypt to the Federal Republic of Germany. He retired from active duty in 1987 and became a member of the commission of experts of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva from 1988 to 1997, head of the Human Rights Commission at the Arab League from 1991 to 1997 and Special Envoy of the Egyptian President in 1994. He died in Cairo in 1997 from heart disease.

Ambassador Abdel-Hamid received many distinctions and medals during his career and was Commander of the Order of Saint Pius IX and of the German Order of Merit, and holder of the Egyptian Order of Merit First Class and the Order of the Egyptian Republic, and various other international distinctions. He was an active member of the Rotary Club of Zamalek.

He was married to Zeinab Hassouna whose father Abdel-Khalek Hassouna Pasha, an Egyptian diplomat and statesman, was minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt and Secretary General of the League of Arab States from 1952 to 1972, the longest serving secretary general in the history of the league. He is survived by his son Hassan, an international banker, and daughters Mona, an oil and gas negotiator and Hoda, a pluri-awarded journalist that received several times the Emmy awards for her coverage of the 9/11 events and war-torn Baghdad.