He oversaw the United Nations over a period coinciding with several world crises, including the breakup of Yugoslavia and the Rwandan genocide.

In that capacity, he helped negotiate the Camp David Accords and the Egypt–Israel peace treaty between Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin.

Boutros-Ghali was elected secretary-general by the United Nations General Assembly in 1991 and began his term in 1992, succeeding Javier Pérez de Cuéllar.

He received criticism over UN inaction in Angola and during the genocide in Rwanda, and the perceived ineffectiveness of the UN peacekeeping operation in Bosnia led to a NATO intervention.

In 1996, Boutros-Ghali ran unopposed for a second term as secretary-general, but the United States, long dissatisfied with his leadership, denied his bid by exercising its Security Council veto.

[6] The young boy was brought up by a Slovenian nanny, one of the so-called Aleksandrinke [sl]; he was closer to Milena, "his invaluable friend and confidant", than to his own mother.

[10] According to investigative journalist Linda Melvern, Boutros-Ghali approved a secret $26 million arms sale to the government of Rwanda in 1990, when he was foreign minister, the weapons stockpiled by the Hutu regime as part of the fairly public, long-term preparations for the subsequent genocide.

The top post in the UN was opening up as Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru reached the end of his second term, and Africa was next in the rotation.

After several countries withdrew their support for Chidzero, fed by fears that the United States was trying to eliminate both of the leading candidates, Boutros-Ghali won a clear victory in round 5.

He set three goals: for the UN to be more active in promoting democracy, for the UN to conduct preventative diplomacy to avert crises, and to expand the UN's role as peacekeeper.

[14] Although the goals were consistent with those of US president George H. W. Bush, he nevertheless repeatedly clashed with the United States, especially with his efforts to enlist the support of the US, to involve UN more deeply in the civil wars in Somalia (1992) and in Rwanda (1994).

[15] Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad called on Boutros-Ghali to resign for failing to take any firm action to help resolve the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Boutros-Ghali played a "significant role"[24] in creating Egypt's National Council for Human Rights and served as its president until 2012.

[32] Boutros-Ghali's wife, Leia Maria Nadler (1924–2024), was raised in an Egyptian Jewish family in Alexandria and converted to Catholicism as a young woman.