Nawaf Salam

Background and education

Son of Abdallah Salam and Reckat Beyhum, Nawaf was born into a prominent family from Beirut, Lebanon. His grandfather, Salim Salam, the leader of the “Beirut Reform Movement,” was elected deputy of Beirut to the Ottoman parliament in 1912. His uncle, Saeb Salam, fought for Lebanon’s independence from the French Mandate of Lebanon and subsequently served six times as Prime Minister of Lebanon between 1952 and 1973. He is married to the journalist Sahar Baassiri and has two sons, Abdallah and Marwan.

Salam received a doctorate in Political Science from the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (1992), an L.L.M. from Harvard Law School (1991), and a doctorate in History from Sorbonne University (1979).

Career

From 1979 to 1981, Salam was a lecturer on the contemporary history of the Middle East at Sorbonne University. In 1981, he left Paris to spend an academic year as a visiting scholar at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. Between 1985 and 1989, he was a lecturer at the American University of Beirut, during which time he also practiced law as an associate at the Takla law firm. He was a visiting researcher at the Harvard Law School from 1989 to 1990, and a foreign legal consultant at Edwards & Angell LLP from 1989 to 1992. He resumed his practice at the Takla law firm in 1992 as well as his teaching of International Law and International Relations at the American University of Beirut. He was appointed as Visiting Associate Professor of Political Science in 2003, and later as Associate Professor of Political Science in 2005. From 2005 to 2006, he was the Chairman of the Political Studies and Public Administration Department.

Salam has also served as a member of the Executive Bureau of the Economic and Social Council of Lebanon from 1999 to 2002 and as a member of the Lebanese National Commission of UNESCO from 2000 to 2004. In 2005 and 2006, he was a member and Secretary General of The National Commission on Electoral Reform which was entrusted with the task of preparing the draft of a new electoral law for Lebanon. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies (LCPS).

Permanent Representative of Lebanon to the United Nations

As of July 2007, he has been serving as Lebanon’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York.

Salam’s mandate at the UN has been marked by his repeated interventions before the Security Council defending Palestinian National Rights, calling for security and stability in South Lebanon through the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, and for an end to impunity through the establishment of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in the matter of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, pursuant to United Nations Security Council resolution 1757.

He represented Lebanon at the Security Council in 2010 and 2011, for Lebanon's two-year term as a non-permanent member. In May 2010 and September 2011, he held the rotating Presidency of the Security Council.

In June 2012, he was elected to serve as Vice-President of the 67th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, effective September 2012.

Decorations

Salam was awarded in 2012 the French Legion of Honour (Légion d'honneur) at the rank of Officer (Officier) by President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Books and Booklets

Chapters in books and articles in refereed journals