For information specific to membership in the Arab League see Member states of the Arab League.

Country	Area (Rank)	Area (km2)[Note 1]	Area (sq mi)	Area (% of Total)	Area (Notes)	Pop	Pop (World rank)	Density (rank)	Density (/km2)	Density (/mi2)
Algeria	1	2,381,741	919,595	18.1%	Largest country in Africa and in the Arab world.	37,100,000	34	17	16	41
Bahrain	22	758	293	0.005%		1,234,596	155	1	1,646	4,263
Comoros	21	2,235	863	0.01%		691,000	163	4	309	800
Djibouti	16	23,200	9,000	0.1%		864,000	159	15	37	96
Egypt	6	1,002,000	387,000	7.6%	Excluding the Hala'ib Triangle (20,580 km2/7,950 sq mi).	81,650,212[1]	16	9	90	233
Iraq	10	435,244	168,049	3.3%		30,747,000	40	12	70	181
Jordan	14	89,342	34,495	0.7%		6,316,000	106	11	71	184
Kuwait	17	17,818	6,880	0.1%		3,566,000	134	5	200	518
Lebanon	19	10,452	4,036	0.08%		4,224,000	125	3	404	1,046
Libya	4	1,759,540	679,360	11.4%		6,420,000	103	21	3.6	9.3
Mauritania	5	1,025,520	395,960	7.8%		3,291,000	138	22	3.2	8.3
Morocco	9	446,550	172,410	3.4%	Does not include Western Sahara (266,000 km2/103,000 sq mi).	36,064,173	35	10	75	194
Oman	11	309,500	119,500	2.4%		2,845,000	139	20	9.2	24
Palestine	20	6,020	2,320	0.05%		4,136,540 (Disputed)	126	2	687	1,779
Qatar	18	11,586	4,473	0.08%		1,699,435	149	6	154	399
Saudi Arabia	2	2,149,690	830,000	16.4%	Largest country in the Middle East.	28,146,658	45	19	131	339
Somalia	7	637,657	246,201	4.9%		9,133,000	85	18	14	36
Sudan	3	1,861,484	718,723	14.2%	Formerly the largest country in Africa.	30,894,000	39	16	16	41
Syria	12	185,180	71,500	1.4%	Including the part of the Golan Heights (1,200 km2/460 sq mi) currently administered by Israel.	21,906,000	55	7	118	306
Tunisia	13	163,610	63,170	1.2%		10,673,800	77	13	65	168
United Arab Emirates	15	83,600	32,300	0.6%		8,264,070	93	8	99	256
Yemen	8	527,968	203,850	4.0%		23,580,000	49	14	45	117
TOTAL  Arab League	#	#	#	#	#	349,870,608

Notes[link]

References[link]

Jerome W. "Jerry" Davis (January 5, 1924 – October 18, 2006) was a professional American football defensive back in the National Football League. He played for the Chicago Cardinals (1948–1951) and the Dallas Texans (1952).

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The Honourable Irwin Cotler PC, OC, MP
Member of the Canadian Parliament for Mount Royal
Incumbent
Assumed office November 15, 1999
Preceded by	Sheila Finestone
Minister of Justice
In office December 12, 2003 – February 5, 2006
Prime Minister	Paul Martin
Preceded by	Martin Cauchon
Succeeded by	Vic Toews
Personal details
Born	(1940-05-08) May 8, 1940 (age 72) Montreal, Quebec
Political party	Liberal
Spouse(s)	Ariela Cotler
Residence	Montreal
Profession	Lawyer, law professor
Religion	Judaism

Irwin Cotler, PC, OC, MP (born May 8, 1940) was Canada's Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada from 2003 until the Liberal government of Paul Martin lost power following the 2006 federal election. He was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons for the constituency of Mount Royal in a by-election in November 1999, winning over 91% of votes cast.^[1] He was sworn into Cabinet on December 12, 2003.

Early life[link]

The son of a lawyer, he was born in Montreal, Quebec, studied at McGill University there (receiving a BA in 1961 and a law degree three years later) and then continued his education at Yale University. For a short period, he worked with federal Minister of Justice John Turner.

Cotler was a professor of law at McGill University and the director of its Human Rights Program from 1973 until his election as a Member of Parliament in 1999 for the Liberal Party of Canada. He has also been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at Yale Law School and is the recipient of ten honorary doctorates. He was appointed in 1992 as an Officer of the Order of Canada. He is a past president of the Canadian Jewish Congress.

Human rights activity[link]

Cotler has served on the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and its sub-Committee on Human Rights and International Development, as well as on the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. In 2000, he was appointed special advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs on the International Criminal Court.

He is considered an expert on international law and human rights law. As an international human rights lawyer, Cotler served as counsel to former prisoners of conscience Nelson Mandela in South Africa, Jacobo Timmerman in Latin America, Muchtar Pakpahan in Asia, as well as other well known political prisoners and dissidents. Cotler represented Natan Sharansky, who was imprisoned in the Soviet gulag for Jewish activism. After his release, Sharansky went on to become Israeli Deputy Prime Minister.^{[citation needed]}

Saad Eddin Ibrahim, an Egyptian democracy activist imprisoned by the Egyptian government, was represented by Cotler and acquitted in 2003. He acted as counsel to Maher Arar during part of Arar's imprisonment and supported demands for a public inquiry. He has also defended both Palestinians and Israelis against their own governments, and participated in a minor role in the Camp David peace agreement between Israel and Egypt.^{[citation needed]}

In 1986 he was chief counsel to the Canadian Jewish Congress at the Deschênes Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals.

Cotler is on the Board of Advancing Human Rights (NGO).^[2]

National Security and the Law[link]

Irwin Cotler (left) (May 11, 2004, Washington, D.C.)

One of the central challenges for Cotler during his time as Justice Minister was to address concerns about terrorism while guarding against arbitrary and unnecessary limits on rights. Part of his work in this regard, has included a review of Bill C-36, Canada's relatively recent Anti-Terrorism Act. The Anti-Terrorism Act has been criticized by some human rights groups and defense lawyers, as an unreasonable trade-off between security and freedom.^[3] Cotler believed that the legislation did, in fact, strike a balance between rights and national security concerns, but understood that further consultation was necessary in reviewing the legislation. On February 21, 2005, Cotler spoke of the important work that Bill C-36 involved, and invited experts and other groups to continue dialogue to improve the legislation in the review process.^[4]

Cotler presided over other legislative changes concerning national security. This included proposed changes to privacy legislation known as “Lawful Access” to give police and intelligence officers the tools to conduct surveillance of electronic communications for law enforcement and national security purposes.^[5][6]

Due to his position as Justice Minister, Cotler has received many appeals from various groups asking that so-called "secret" trials and detentions in Canada be abolished.^[7] But these "appeals" and protests are often based on false or inaccurate information. For example, the security certificates are subject to judicial review and constitutional scrutiny by the Federal Court of Canada and the proceeding is not "secret". Rather, only evidence deemed to relate to national security is protected from disclosure.^[8] Additionally, the Canadian federal court of appeal ruled, in December 2004, that security certificates were fully consistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.^[8] This decision was appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada. The Supreme Court heard the (related) appeals in June 2006, has reserved its decision.^[9]

Politics[link]

Though he intended his foray into politics to be a brief departure from his academic career, this changed on December 12, 2003 when Prime Minister Paul Martin called upon him to enter Cabinet as Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada.

He recommended the appointment of numerous women and aboriginal judges, including of two women to the Supreme Court of Canada in August 2004: Louise Charron and Rosalie Abella, making the Supreme Court the most gender-equity high court in the world.

Cotler attempted to introduce several bills to decriminalize marijuana.^[10][11]

On February 22, 2006, the Liberal Party appointed Cotler Critic for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness in the opposition shadow cabinet for the 39th Canadian Parliament. On 18 January 2007, Cotler was appointed Critic for Human Rights by newly elected leader Stéphane Dion.

In January, 2009, Irwin Cotler was named Special Counsel on Human Rights and International Justice for the Liberal Party, under Michael Ignatieff, and subsequently Critic for Human Rights.

In the 2011 election, Cotler fended off a serious challenge from former city councillor Saulie Zajdel, a longtime Liberal supporter running as a Conservative who lost by only 2,500 votes. It was only the third time that the Liberals have been seriously threatened in Mount Royal since initially winning it in 1940, and the closest that a centre-right party has come to winning anywhere in Montreal since 1993. In May 2011, Cotler was named Justice and Human Rights Critic by interim Liberal leader Bob Rae.

Views on anti-racism, genocide and anti-Semitism[link]

As Minister of Justice, Cotler tabled Canada's first-ever National Justice Initiative Against Racism, in parallel with the government's National Action Plan Against Racism.

Cotler has also fought against genocide and impunity. His attempts to bring Nazi war criminals to justice have won praise as has been his founding of all-party Parliamentary groups to bring attention and action to end the genocide in Darfur. Cotler has worked with a group of international jurists to indict Iranian President Ahmadinejad for incitement to genocide under the UN Charter and the Genocide Convention.^{[citation needed]} Cotler released a petition in 2008 entitled “The Danger of a Genocidal and Nuclear Iran: A Responsibility to Prevent Petition.”

Cotler separated six categories of anti-Semitism and found thirteen indices of discrimination against Jews that characterizes the "new anti-Jewishness".^{[citation needed]}

Irwin Cotler is a member of MEMRI's Board of Advisors (http://www.memri.org/content/en/about.htm)

Irwin Cotler is an Honorary Member of The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation.

Cotler was re-elected to Parliament in 2008 to represent the Mount Royal riding in Quebec with 55% of the vote,^[12] and re-elected again in May 2011.

Family[link]

Cotler's wife, Ariela, is a native of Jerusalem and worked as a legislative assistant to the Likud members of the Israeli Knesset from 1967 to 1979.^[13]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official site
• Voices on Antisemitism Interview with Irwin Cotler from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• Irwin Cotler McGill University Biography
• "Irwin Cotler: A Canadian Anti-Apartheid Activist" - Interview form 1997
• "Is the war on Iraq illegal?" - Article by Cotler in "The Globe and Mail" 21 March 2003
• Minister of Justice Irwin Cotler comments about same sex marriage
• Human Rights and the New Anti-Jewishness in "FrontPageMagazine.com" 16 February 2004
• How'd They Vote?: Irwin Cotler's voting history and quotes
• Order of Canada citation
• Parliament Webpage

v t e Ministers of Justice and Attorneys General Macdonald Dorion Smith (acting) Fournier Blake Laflamme Campbell Thompson Tupper Daly (acting) Dickey Mowat Mills Fitzpatrick Aylesworth Doherty Bennett Gouin Lapointe Guthrie (acting) Patenaude Lapointe Guthrie Geary Lapointe Michaud (acting) St. Laurent Ilsley St. Laurent Garson Fulton Fleming Chevrier Favreau McIlraith (acting) Cardin Trudeau Turner Lang Basford Lang Lalonde Flynn Chrétien MacGuigan Johnston Crosbie Hnatyshyn Clark (acting) Lewis Campbell Blais Rock McLellan Cauchon Cotler Toews Nicholson

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