By: Ayman Okeil
I hope my appeal to the incoming Secretary-General of the Arab League, who is set to assume office in July 2026, finds a receptive audience. My motivation for this letter—call it a plea, a message, or whatever you wish—stems from a desire to see the Arab League as an effective regional organization that plays a crucial role for Arab states and peoples, who currently perceive the League as being in a lamentable state. However, surrendering to despair is the beginning of collapse, which is why I write this article.
Dear Incoming Secretary-General, it is widely agreed, especially among knowledgeable individuals, that accurate diagnosis of any problem and understanding its causes make finding a solution much easier. Even in medicine, early diagnosis of diseases such as cancer, for example, saves many lives. In management science, institutions that have well-crafted plans devised by visionaries tend to be successful.
The Arab League needs a thorough diagnosis to address the general symptoms known to the public, while experts and stakeholders are aware of the specifics.
I advise you, Mr. Secretary-General, to make the League a regional organization with influence, similar to other regional organizations like the European Union, the African Union, and even the Organization of American States.
In brief, the Arab League suffers from fundamental and secondary problems. Here, we will mention the key issues and leave the secondary ones for another time. The first and foremost issue is the financial crisis resulting from some member states failing to pay their assessed contributions to the League’s budget. Only four Arab countries have paid their contributions for 2025, contrary to Article 28 of the financial regulations of the Arab League, which requires member states to pay their contributions in full within the first three months of the fiscal year.
Moreover, personnel costs account for nearly the entire budget, with $40 million allocated to this item out of a total budget of $60 million, and $ 995,000 for the Arab League, estimated for 2025. Additionally, some countries object to increasing their shares in the League’s budget or increasing the budget itself. Recently, five Arab countries expressed reservations about any increase in the 2025 budget. Here, I hope the incoming Secretary-General will exhibit flexibility and assign the administrative and financial sector of the League to engage in courageous negotiations with the Arab states that are hesitant about the League’s budget to change their perspectives.
However, the League’s problems cannot be confined to the budget item, as the General Secretariat is burdened with assignments and bureaucracy. I encourage the Secretary-General to adopt an ambitious program for internal reform within the League, aiming to limit bureaucracy among its departments and restructure the General Secretariat.
I urge you to abandon the philosophy of forming committees for development that take years to propose initiatives that lack implementation or consultation. There is indeed a committee known as the Open-Ended Committee for Modernizing and Developing the Arab League, but what has it achieved? Frankly and without embarrassment: nothing. Even if this committee were to conclude with actionable proposals, would there be common ground among member states to facilitate actual implementation? All these questions await answers.
It falls within the authority of the Secretary-General to review the methods and efficiency of the League’s work. There is no shame in considering best practices employed in the United Nations. I believe that if the incoming Secretary-General decides to halt the establishment of any new committees or departments and merge existing ones to prevent duplication of efforts, it would be a wise decision.
Since the Arab League is not only political but also a regional organization with diverse fields including legal, humanitarian, developmental, human rights, anti-terrorism, and disarmament issues, I see another problem that previous Secretary-Generals have not addressed, except for the late Nabil El-Araby, who attempted to reform and develop the Arab mechanisms for human rights, though his efforts were in vain. A simple solution in this area is to encourage states that have not ratified the Arab Charter on Human Rights to join it, and to urge Arab states that are party to the Charter but have not yet submitted their initial or periodic reports to expedite their submissions to the Arab Charter on Human Rights Committee.
However, what might be of greater importance in my view is the integration of Arab civil society into efforts to reform the Arab mechanisms for human rights by encouraging it to submit parallel reports to the periodic reports of all states parties to the Charter, while also considering its recommendations during the review process. Additionally, civil society should be granted the opportunity to participate in the work of the Arab Permanent Committee on Human Rights. This participation will only be effective if the process of establishing unified criteria for civil society organizations to obtain observer status for participation in the League’s activities is finalized. Despite repeated attempts since the Arab League Council’s decision in 2014 calling for the finalization of unified criteria for Arab civil society organizations to grant them observer status in the League’s bodies and mechanisms, this decision remains elusive.
The Arab Permanent Committee on Human Rights has postponed reviewing the formulation of unified criteria to grant this status to civil society, session after session, without providing reasonable explanations for these delays. I imagine the incoming Secretary-General understands the importance of civil society, recognizing that it embodies both the problem and the solution. The problem is that the League remains distant from Arab civil society. The solution is enhancing cooperation and partnerships with Arab civil society can enrich the work of the Arab League and enhance its effectiveness. Although the human rights guiding framework issued by the Arab League has emphasized the necessity of strengthening cooperation with nationally accredited civil society organizations—those operating within the legal frameworks governing their work—the practical reality shows that the gap between the League and civil society is widening rather than narrowing. Evidence of this is the limited number of organizations that hold observer status with the Arab Charter on Human Rights Committee, or even the Arab Permanent Committee on Human Rights, or the Economic and Social Council of the Arab League.
I also urge the incoming Secretary-General or the appointee to review the human rights-related documents issued by the League’s bodies or those operating under its umbrella, including the Arab Human Rights Charter 2020-2030 issued by the Arab Parliament, which proposes—among other things—the establishment of an Arab High Commission for Human Rights and the creation of the position of Arab High Commissioner for Human Rights. However, these proposals remain shelved, waiting for someone to dust off the accumulated neglect over the years. The Arab Human Rights Charter is now over five years old, yet the document remains ink on paper.
There will be more to discuss regarding the reform of the Arab League.
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