Biographical Note

Ali Abdussalam Treki of Libya President of Sixty-Fourth General Assembly

Ali Abdussalam Treki was elected President of the sixty-fourth session of the United Nations General Assembly on 10 June 2009 (see Press Release GA/10831).  He is Libya’s Secretary (Minister) of African Union Affairs, a post he has held since 2004.

Mr. Treki brings to the position a deep knowledge of United Nations issues, having served three times as his country’s Permanent Representative to the world body ‑‑ from 1982 to 1984 ‑‑ when he also chaired the General Assembly’s Fourth Committee (Decolonization) and represented Libya on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights; from 1986 to 1990; and, most recently, in 2003.  Earlier, in 1982, he served as a Vice-President of the General Assembly at its thirty-seventh session.

A veteran in the fields of diplomacy and international relations, Mr. Treki served as Libya’s Ambassador to France from 1995 to 1999, as Permanent Representative to the League of Arab States in Cairo (Egypt) from 1991 to 1994, and as Foreign Minister from 1977 to 1980.

Mr. Treki has played a significant role in the creation of the African Union and has been directly involved in mediating several conflicts in Africa, notably in the Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia-Eritrea and Djibouti-Eritrea, as well as in other parts of the world, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus and the Philippines.

Over the course of a career spanning four decades, Mr. Treki led Libya’s delegation to numerous African summits and conferences including ministerial meetings of the former Organization of African Unity and, more recently, of the African Union Executive Council.  In addition, he headed the Libyan delegation to summits and conferences of the League of Arab States and chaired the League’s Council of Ministers from 1976 to 1977.  He also led his country’s delegation to summits and ministerial conferences of the Organization of the Islamic Conference and chaired the Council of Ministers of Islamic States.  He further headed Libya’s delegation to ministerial meetings of the Non-Aligned Movement, as well as to the Movement’s 1979 summit conference in Cuba.

Mr. Treki is the recipient of honorary doctorate degrees from universities in the United States, Europe, Africa and Asia, and has been decorated by a number of Governments around the world.

Born in 1938 in Misrata, Libya, Mr. Treki holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Garyounes University, Benghazi, Libya, and earned a doctorate in political history from Toulouse University, France.  He is fluent in Arabic, English and French.

Mr. Treki is married with four children.

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*     This supersedes Press Release BIO/3533 of 18 September 2003.

For information media • not an official record