League of Arab States

League of Arab States

Area:13,333,296 km2

The Arab League was formed by Alexandria Protocol in Cairo on 22 March 1945 with six members: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan (renamed Jordan after 1946), Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. Yemen joined as a member on 5 May 1945.

These seven Arab states were all formerly subject to the Ottoman Empire and became independent after the defeat of Turkey during World War I. In their intention, the Arab League wanted to strengthen the links among the members and to further the joint interests of all Arab nations.

Population: 400,652,486

Legislature

Since then, 16 more states joined the organization, but due to recent uprising in Syria and their government’s brutal way of dealing with political opponents, the league suspended this member state and now counts 21 members.

At the Arab League Summit of 2001-Amman, the Arab states agreed to create an Arab Parliament, and came up with a resolution to give the Secretary General of the Arab League the power to start and create the Parliament.

• Saudi Arabia

• Somalia

• Sudan

• Tunisia

• United Arab

Emirates

• Yemen

• Algeria

• Bahrain

• Comoros

• Djibouti

• Egypt

• Iraq

• Jordan

• Kuwait

• Lebanon

• Lybia

• Mauritania

• Morocco

• Oman

• Palestine

• Qatar

Leaders

Arab League Secretariat:

Nabil Elaraby

There are also 4

observers:

* Eritrea

* Brazil

* Venezuela

* India

Head of Arab Parliament:

Ali Al-Daqbaashi

Main objectives

Main institutions

Charter of Arab League

The principal institutions of the Arab League are:

- the Council of the League,

- the Joint Defense Council,

- the Economic and Social Council,

- the Committees and the Secretariat General.

While the Arab League is committed to respecting the established government in each member state and to guaranteeing its sovereignty and independence, the League set itself several objectives from the outset:

- to maintain and strengthen the solidarity among the Arab states in the face of external threats;

- to ensure cohesion and peace between the member states by offering to arbitrate in the event of conflict between two or more member states and by opposing any recourse to force;

- to ensure the cooperation of member states in various areas, e.g. social, legal, parliamentary, financial, economic and cultural affairs.

The main document is Charter of Arab League. According to it the organization’s main goal is “strengthening of the relations between the member-states, the coordination of their policies in order to achieve co-operation between them and to safeguard their independence and sovereignty; and a general concern with the affairs and interests of the Arab countries.“ These affairs and interests include all important economic issues, including finances, commerce, business, currency, etc. They also include social, cultural and health affais, communication, transport, travel, the question of nationality, visas and passports, and similar.