The IPU is greatly saddened to hear of the death of former IPU President Ahmed Fathi Sorour on 6 April 2024.
Dr. Sorour was IPU President from 1994 to 1997, a critical period for the IPU when many new democratically elected parliaments joined the Organization after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Born on 9 July 1932, Dr. Sorour studied law in Egypt and the United States. He had a distinguished legal and academic career in Egypt, rising up the ranks from public prosecutor to assistant Attorney General and becoming Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Cairo.
He joined the Egyptian Parliament in 1989 and became its longest-serving Speaker from 1991 to 2011. It was under his leadership that IPU Member Parliaments adopted the landmark Universal Declaration on Democracy at the 161st session of the Inter-Parliamentary Council in Cairo in 1997.
The IPU’s thoughts and condolences go out to his family, friends and colleagues. May he rest in peace.
