League of Arab States

The League of Arab States (often called the Arab League) was established on 22 March 1945 in Cairo with the signing of the Pact of the League of Arab States by six founding members: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan (now Jordan), Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. Yemen joined shortly afterward. Membership has since expanded to 22 states spanning North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Middle East, including Palestine, which the League recognizes as a full member.

The League's headquarters is in Cairo, though it was relocated to Tunis from 1979 to 1990 after Egypt's membership was suspended following the Egypt–Israel peace treaty. Its principal organs include the Council of the League (the supreme body, in which each member has one vote), the Secretariat-General, specialized ministerial councils, and permanent committees. Decisions of the Council are binding only on states that vote in favor, a structural feature that has limited the League's enforcement capacity.

Key instruments adopted under its auspices include the Joint Defence and Economic Cooperation Treaty (1950), the Arab Charter on Human Rights (originally 1994, revised 2004), and the Arab Peace Initiative put forward at the 2002 Beirut Summit, which offered Israel normalization in exchange for withdrawal to pre-1967 lines and a just settlement of the Palestinian refugee question.

The League has acted on major regional crises with mixed results. It suspended Libya in February 2011 and supported the imposition of a no-fly zone, a position cited in UN Security Council Resolution 1973. Syria was suspended in November 2011 over the Assad government's crackdown on protests and readmitted in May 2023. The League also helped establish the Arab Monetary Fund and supports cultural bodies such as ALECSO.

Critics note the organization's consensus-driven culture, recurring intra-Arab rivalries, and limited capacity to enforce decisions, which have constrained its effectiveness compared with more integrated regional bodies.