Childhood & Early Life
Mohamed ElBaradei was born in Cairo, Egypt, on June 17, 1942. His father Mostafa ElBaradei was an attorney and the head of the Bar association in Egypt.
In 1962 he obtained his bachelor’s degree in Law from the University of Cairo. He completed ‘Master of International Law’ at the ‘Graduate Institute of Studies’ in Geneva.
From the New York University, he obtained a ‘Doctor of Juridical Science’ degree in 1974.
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Career
Mohamed ElBaradei started his diplomatic career with the Egyptian ‘Ministry of External Affairs’ in 1964 and was posted at the ‘Permanent Missions of Egypt to the United Nations’ in New York and Geneva. He was given the charge of handling such issues as legal, political and the control of arms.
From 1974 to 1978 he worked as the Egyptian foreign minister’s special assistant.
He was made a senior fellow in charge of the ‘International Law Program’ conducted at the ‘United Nations Institute for Training and Research’.
He worked for the ‘New York School of Law’ as an adjunct professor from 1981 to 1987 and taught international law.
He was a senior staff member and the legal adviser of the IAEA Secretariat from 1984 to 1993.
He was made the ‘Assistant Director General for External Relations’ and held the post from 1993 to 1997.
At present he holds a member’s post in both the ‘American Society of International Law’ and the ‘International Law Association’.
He became the Director General of IAEA on December 1, 1997 and was posted in Vienna. He called upon all countries to abide by the ‘Model Additional Protocol’ for declaring undeclared nuclear arms and by 2009 more than 93 countries had the protocol in place.
He was re-elected to the post in 2001. He told the UN Security Council in March 2003 that nothing incriminating was found in the search carried out in Iraq in 2002.
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United States strongly objected to his re-election for a third term but was supported by Russia, China, France and Germany and many developing countries. After the United States dropped its objections he was unanimously elected to the post on June 13, 2005. When offered a fourth term in 2008, he refused the same.
On January 25, 2011, the day of the start of the turmoil in Egypt, he declared that he would like to lead a provisional government.
He returned to Egypt on January 27, 2011 but the main opposition party, the Muslim Brotherhood, was reluctant to make him the leader of the movement.
He announced that he would run for the President on March, 2011 but later retracted.
On April 28, 2012, ElBaradei formed the Constitution Party which merged with other secular parties to form the ‘National Salvation Front’ on November 24, 2012 against President Mohammed Morsi’s regime. He became its coordinator on December 5, 2012.
After President Mohamed Morsi was removed, it was announced on July 4, 2013 that ElBaradei would be the Prime Minister but the statement was retracted on July 7, 2013 due to objections from some parties.
He was elected as Vice President on July 14, 2013 but resigned from the post on August 14, 2013 after the security forces killed 525 supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsi during protests.
Personal Life & Legacy
Mohamed ElBaradei is married to Aida El-Kachef who works as a teacher.
They have two children, a daughter named Laila and a son named Mostafa. The daughter is a lawyer working in London while his son lives in Cairo and works as an IT Manager. He has two grand-daughters named Maya and Nina.
He was commemorated by the Egypt Post by a stamp brought out on October 8, 2005 of Nobel laureates.
