Arab League
Political
Arabic is an official language of every member state. The pact signed at Cairo on 22 March 1945 opened the League to any independent Arab State that applied for it, and left the word Arab undefined. What that produced spans two continents: 22 members, ten of them in the African Union as well, and one that is not a member state of the United Nations.
22 countries
- AlgeriaJoined 1962.
- BahrainJoined 1971.
- ComorosJoined 1993.
- DjiboutiJoined 1977.
- EgyptJoined 1945.
- IraqJoined 1945.
- JordanJoined 1946.
- KuwaitJoined 1961.
- LebanonJoined 1945.
- LibyaJoined 1953.
- MauritaniaJoined 1973.
- MoroccoJoined 1958.
- OmanJoined 1971.
- Palestineدولة فلسطين
- QatarJoined 1971.
- Saudi ArabiaJoined 1945.
- SomaliaJoined 1974.
- SudanJoined 1956.
- SyriaJoined 1945.
- TunisiaJoined 1958.
- United Arab EmiratesJoined 1971.
- YemenJoined 1945.
Common questions
Questions about Arab League
Which countries are in the Arab League?
The 22 members are Algeria, Bahrain, the Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Syria, Transjordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Egypt and Yemen were parties to the pact drawn up at Cairo in 1945; every other member adhered to it afterwards.
Is Arabic official in every Arab League country?
Yes, on the records this catalogue holds. In seven of them Arabic shares that standing with another language: Berber in Algeria, Tamazight in Morocco, Kurdish in Iraq, Somali in Somalia, Comorian and French in the Comoros, French in Djibouti and English in Sudan. The pact of 1945 does not make language a condition of membership, and sets no criterion beyond an independent Arab State and the assent of the Council.
Is Palestine a full member of the Arab League?
Yes. An annex to the pact of 1945 asked the Council to designate an Arab delegate from Palestine to take part in the League's work until the country enjoyed actual independence. The Palestine Liberation Organization was given observer status in 1964 and full membership in 1976. Palestine is the entry on this page whose record shows no seat at the United Nations.
Has the Arab League ever suspended a member?
Three times on the record here. Egypt was suspended after signing a peace treaty with Israel on 26 March 1979, and the headquarters moved from Cairo to Tunis; Egypt was reinstated in 1989 and the headquarters returned in 1990. Libya was suspended in February 2011 and reinstated that August. Syria was suspended in November 2011 and reinstated in 2023.
Where is the Arab League based?
Article 10 of the pact makes Cairo the permanent seat and allows the Council to meet at any other place it designates. The seat stood at Tunis between 1979 and 1990, after the vote that suspended Egypt, and has been at Cairo since.
Are Arab League decisions binding on its members?
It depends on the vote. Each state has one vote on the Council whatever the size of its delegation, and Article 7 of the pact makes a unanimous decision binding on every member state and a majority decision binding only on those states that accept it. Article 18 lets the Council treat a member that is not fulfilling the pact as excluded, by the unanimous vote of all the others.
Sources
- Pact of the League of Arab States, March 22, 1945 · The Avalon Project, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School. The full text: Article 1 on adherence, Article 7 on what a vote binds, Article 8, Article 10 on the seat at Cairo, Articles 18 and 20, the annex on Palestine, the dates of ratification and the adherence of Libya on 28 March 1953. Reprinted from UN doc. A/C.6/L.111, also in the UN Treaty Series, vol. 70.
- Arab League · Encyclopaedia Britannica. The founding members and the year of each later accession, the agreement on joint defence and economic co-operation of 13 April 1950, PLO observer status in 1964 and full membership in 1976, the suspension of Egypt in 1979 with the move of the headquarters to Tunis and its return to Cairo in 1990, and the suspensions of Libya and Syria in 2011.
- Arab Charter on Human Rights · University of Minnesota Human Rights Library. The text of the Charter of 22 May 2004, in force from 15 March 2008, including Article 45 on the composition and election of the Arab Human Rights Committee.
- Arab Charter on Human Rights (UN document ST/HR/CHR/NONE/2004/40/Rev.1) · United Nations Digital Library. The English translation issued by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights from the Arabic version provided by the League of Arab States, which fixes the year of adoption.
- League of Arab States · United Nations Treaty Collection. The registration record for the Pact of the League of Arab States.