Arab Lawyers Union
Open-knowledge reference entry
The Arab Lawyers Union (ALU; Arabic: اتحاد المحامين العرب) is a professional association of lawyers from across the Arab world. Founded in 1944, the ALU seeks to promote the legal profession in the Arab world and to defend the rights of Arabs.
History
The Arab Lawyers Union was founded in Cairo, Egypt, in 1944 by a group of Arab lawyers, including Tawfiq al-Hakim. The union was created in response to the growing need for a professional association of lawyers that could represent the interests of Arab lawyers and their clients in the face of colonialism and foreign domination in the Arab world.
In 2001, the Arab Lawyers Union distributed a book whose cover bore a swastika and the Star of David interconnected, at the World Conference against Racism 2001.
In March 2004, the Arab Lawyers Union formed a "defence committee" for former president Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi prisoners.
In October 2012, the Arab Lawyers Union presented their top award to suicide bomber Hanadi Jaradat who in 2003 killed 21 Jewish and Arab Israelis, and sent a delegation to her family to present them with the award. Ayman Abu Eisheh, a member of the Palestine Committee at the Arab Lawyers Union, said that the ALU were proud of Jaradat, and that her suicide bombing was "in defense of Palestine and the Arab nation."
Over the years, the Arab Lawyers Union has grown in size, and today it is one of the largest professional associations of lawyers in the Arab world. It is headquartered in Cairo, and has branches and affiliated organizations in a number of Arab countries, including Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen.
Leadership and Governance
The Arab Lawyers Union is governed by a General Assembly, which meets every three years to elect a President and other officers, review the union's activities and policies, and set the agenda for the next three years.
“Arab Lawyers Union” enters the record as open-knowledge reference entry. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Arab, Lawyers and Union can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Arab Lawyers Union” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Arab, Lawyers and Union provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16126728. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1944, 2001, 2004 and 2012.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Arab Lawyers Union”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Arab Lawyers Union primary sources, Arab Lawyers Union archive and Arab research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Arab Lawyers Union”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Arab Lawyers Union” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.