Ahmed Fawzi

Ahmed Fawzi has the charm and manners of an English gentleman and an accent to match. But then you would expect no less of the Director of the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) for the UK and Ireland. Mr Fawzi steps into many shoes in his current position, his most recent role being the spokesman for Mr Lakhdar Brahimi, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan. His previous and first job within the United Nations was as UN spokesman for the former Secretary General, Mr Boutros Boutros-Ghali, a fellow Egyptian.

Fawzi was brought up in Egypt and had an international education. He read English Literature and Language at Cairo University and studied for his Postgraduate Degree at Syracuse University in New York. As an Arab who has worked and lived in the West, Fawzi is “proud to be one of the many Egyptians who has been able to break through cultural barriers and enjoy good relations, socially and professionally, with people everywhere, in the West, as well as in other parts of the world.” Fawzi is open-minded about the cultural cross-over and has a cross-section of friends worldwide.
For the past ten years, Fawzi has been working at the UN, the last five of which have been at the UNIC offices in London. A highly focused man, Fawzi has clear objectives of his role in the UN and the organisation’s position regarding current affairs worldwide.
Prior to working for the UN, Fawzi was in international journalism working at Reuters Television for ten years. In his final posting as Operations Manager for their offices in New York, Fawzi interviewed Mr Boutros-Ghali for a TV interview. The meeting reintroduced the two Egyptians; as they had previously both worked in President Sadat administration 20 years earlier.

Within two months of that interview, Boutros-Ghali made Fawzi an offer that he could not refuse, and Fawzi became his deputy spokesman during his first year as Secretary-General. Being a conscientious worker himself, Mr Boutros-Ghali was “a challenging task master”.
From the early to mid nineties, during Boutros-Ghali’s reign as Secretary-General for the UN, many tragedies befell several countries: former Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Somalia; Rwanda; and Angola, to name a few. As Fawzi states, “many of these crises were defining moments in the history of peace-keeping in the UN.” At point there were nearly over 70,000 peace-keeping troops deployed around the world in over 20 missions. “The credibility of the UN was at such a high after the Gulf War that, as Boutros-Ghali said, we suffered from too much credibility.” Every time there was a ‘hot spot’ member states said, “send in the UN”, but expectations far exceeded the capability of the organisation. Although member states wanted to send in the UN, they did not give the UN the resources it needed to carry out these missions. Fawzi explains, “There were a lot of difficulties and setbacks. It was a very troubling time, but also a time that defined the capability of the UN and the need to reform some of its decision making processes.”

Since then, over the last five years, Fawzi has been given other assignments in addition to the work he has been doing at the UNIC office in London. Most recently he has been involved in work in Afghanistan, after the fall of the Taliban. The UN was able to bring the Afghan parties together for a peace conference in Bonn. Fawzi became the spokesman for the conference and for Mr Lakhdar Brahimi. Fawzi then spent three months working on the political process in Afghanistan and setting up the information unit for the new mission there. Fawzi then continued to work with the new administration in Kabul post-conference to oversee the political and humanitarian process.

Fawzi’s is a diverse job and he admits he has no such thing as a ‘typical day’. He is happy to say there are quiet days, “but they are few and far between”. Fawzi deals with many countries at once and must have information at hand to provide the press with answers to their questions, speak at conferences, and generally be omniscient on the history, culture, economic and political aspects of any country that happens to be a UN ‘hot spot’. Fawzi modestly protests to being a library of information and cites that his last ten years in the business have enabled him to acquire a certain amount of “basic knowledge”. As he says, “I have the support of headquarters in New York and other agencies.” Fawzi is constantly in touch with all the various departments: political affairs, humanitarian affairs, peace-keeping affairs etc, which provide information when he needs it. Fawzi adds, “Being spokesperson for Boutros-Ghali for nearly five years gave me an insight into how the organisation works from the inside. I was in the centre of decision making and travelling with the Secretary-General to various hot spots around the world. I had to have information at my finger tips and on the tip of my tongue.”
Fawzi has been able to draw on that information and also on the relationships he formed during that time. He believes there is a certain ‘liaison function’ involved in any job. “We all need to network and form relationships in our professions to help us move ahead, obtain information, and forge relationships with new people and organisations to gain further knowledge.” Fawzi explains that he speaks to headquarters and other agencies almost on a daily basis, especially during a crisis. “I’m not a fountain of knowledge. I do not profess to know everything about what we’re doing. There are many occasions when I need guidance and advice.”

Working for the UN entails the necessity to speak with one voice. “There is one spokesman and that is the spokesman for the Secretary-General in New York. What is the Secretary-General saying?” is the question Fawzi needs the answers to. Impartiality is of prime importance in his position, and for every other employee of the UN. Fawzi adds, “We are all bound to be impartial and be loyal to the organisation. Those of us who work for the UN, cannot afford to let our personal feelings come across. There have been occasions where some people have not been able to overcome that obstacle and have resigned rather than be seen to be speaking for themselves.” When someone joins the UN he takes an oath of service to serve the UN faithfully and not receive instructions or guidance from any one government.
As for Fawzi, he fully believes in the UN and in the work they do. “The UN is such a huge family of agencies and programmes that help people all over the world in so many different ways: disease, children, education, the environment, development, international telecommunications and civil aviation. There are so many ways that the UN touches your life from the moment you wake up until you go to bed at night. That’s what people don’t realise and perhaps don’t care about, because they take certain things for granted; like clean water, safe air travel, clean air and good food in the supermarkets. Who sets all these values and these standards? It’s a UN body or agency.”

What about countries that are seen not to be upholding the law? Should the United Nations not enforce international law, especially human rights and humanitarian laws? Fawzi explains that member states sign certain conventions and have to abide by them. The UN upholds international law but, as Fawzi points out, “We have no means of enforcing it; we are not a police force. We don’t have a stick to beat juvenile states that don’t respect conventions. But we do apply pressure.” There is a UN commissioner for human rights who travels around the world, talks to governments and rebel groups and insists on respect for human rights and upholding the conventions. Fawzi insists, “That is what we do very forcefully.” There are states who are on the list of those that do not comply and the whole world knows who they are. It affects their relationship within the family of nations. It will affect trade, economic co-operation, aid assistance and humanitarian assistance if they are seen to be noncompliant with certain conventions.

When asked about the crisis in the Middle East, Fawzi leans back in his chair and sighs. “What’s going on in the M.E. is a tragedy and the international community needs to assist both parties to resolve this tragedy. The most recent resolution recognises the right of both the Israelis and the Palestinians to have two separate states living side by side in secure boundaries and co-existing in peace.”
Could the UN not do more to resolve the current situation in the Middle East? Fawzi explains, “The UN is not an independent corporation that has an army and treasury of its own. The UN is an inter-governmental organisation that implements the will of the international community. It is up to the Security Council to decide, as a whole, if we need to send a peace-keeping mission to a certain country.”

The Security Council is made up of five permanent members: China, Russia, France, Great Britain and the United States. On suggestion that the US has a veto that can cripple UN voting, Fawzi is quick to intervene, “There are 5 permanent members of the Security Council and each has a veto. So, any one of those can cripple the UN, not just the US.”

Fawzi goes on to admit, “Historically the US has been the strongest ally and supporter of Israel, there is no disputing that. And it has been able to affect decisions at the UN in favour of Israel, but that does not exclude the fact that some resolutions have been passed on the Middle East. Some have not been implemented, some have. Such as the one that led to Israel’s withdrawal from Southern Lebanon, albeit after 20 years. But it was implemented.”

Of the fifteen members on the Council, each member has an agenda of its own. “When these agendas combine for the common good that is when the UN Security Council is working at its best, and it doesn’t happen every day and all the time. So regarding the question of US influence, it is important to recognise that all 189 UN member states have a voice and should and do exercise that voice. There are blocks of countries [like the Arab block, the African block and the non-aligned block] from the developing world who exercise their own force of numbers and they bring this force to play in votes they feel are not going the right way.”

A controversial example is that of the Jenin report. The Secretary-General was required to send a fact finding team to the occupied territories, including Jenin and other towns, to report back on what had happened. Israel refused and the Security Council was paralysed. The issue was transferred to the General Assembly where there was a debate. A resolution was passed by a majority of votes instructing the Secretary-General to conduct an investigation and write a report on all available information. Fawzi agrees, “It wasn’t satisfactory to many. The report was released and there was a huge debate about the report, both here and in the Arab world.”

“Nothing we do pleases everybody,” Fawzi says matter of factly. “Wherever we go both sides think we’re biased against them and in favour of the other; whether it’s Israel or the Palestine, or any other area of the world.” Not many would envy Fawzi’s position as the face of the UN in Britain. With tough times and an even tougher worldwide press, his job is certainly challenging, but also highly rewarding. Fawzi’s direction is aimed at the well-being of all to ensure a safe and secure environment for living. “At the end of the day it boils down to respect for human rights for human beings; their right to life, their right to clean air, their right to education and, of course, their right to holidays!”

Fawzi does manage to squeeze in a holiday every now and then into his schedule. Sometimes he returns to Cairo to visit family and friends and, although “Cairo is home”, he insists he feels “at home in both Egypt and Britain”. He admits, though, “I often yearn for the warmth, hospitality and generosity of people in Egypt. And of course I miss the delicious home cooking!” Fawzi’s mother, Sumaya Fahmy, has been a source of inspiration throughout his lifetime and he cites her as his main influence.
Although Fawzi is grateful for the opportunity to work for such an organisation as the UN, he would ultimately like “to retire to a peaceful place by the sea, take long walks, spend more time with my girlfriend and my friends, read more, reflect and perhaps write.” Despite Fawzi’s public persona, he remains a grounded and private man who takes pleasure in the fundamental things in life. Yet he is most proud of his role of in an organisation that strives to make the world a safer and better place for all.