page_title: Omar Sharaf
section_title: UNHCR
hierarchical_section_title: Omar Sharaf / Diplomatic career / UNHCR
caption_attribution_description: English: Letter from Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan addressed to Omar Sharaf, dated 22 December.1965
context_page_description: Omar Abdel Aziz Sharaf was an Egyptian career diplomat, an Assistant Secretary General of the Arab League, a Deputy Representative of the UNHCR for the Middle East, as well as an Omani and international diplomat. He was a Commander Grand Cross of the Order of the Polar Star, a recipient of the Order of Merit, First Class, and a recipient of the Order of the Republic, Second Class. He was also a lawyer, a member of the Egyptian Bar association, who until his death in 1993, was Doyen of a family clan of diplomats, politicians, linguists and lawyers.
context_section_description: Under secondment from the government of the U.A.R, Sharaf was appointed as Deputy Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Middle East (1961–1966). He was involved with providing solutions to the plight of refugees and assistance to internally displaced persons on the African continent, ensuring their protection, well-being and relocation when necessary. The Cairo UNHCR Middle East office was established in 1954, and supervised international humanitarian aid and assistance to a number of African countries including Algeria, Rwanda, Togo and Angola, among others. As deputy representative of the UNHCR Middle East, he actively assisted in his organization's participation in the first Afro-Asian consultative meeting held at the Arab League in Cairo, in February 1964. His direct superior was Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, who at the time was still deputy High Commissioner of the UNHCR. Sadruddin Aga Khan was elected High Commissioner of the UNHCR in December 1965.
  
   
  Prior to and upon assuming his new position as High Commissioner, Sadruddin Aga Khan had unsuccessfully lobbied the Egyptian government, from August till December 1965, to have Sharaf continue in his tenure as deputy representative of the UNHCR Middle East.
caption: Letter from Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, Dec. 1965
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