His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal served as the closest political adviser, confidant and deputy of his brother King Hussein of Jordan until King Hussein's death in 1999. He has founded, and is actively involved in, a number of Jordanian and international institutes, organizations and committees. He is president of the Arab Thought Forum, a former president of the Club of Rome, chairman of the Independent Bureau for Humanitarian Issues and a member of the expert group, appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, to implement the Declaration and Programme of Action of the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance that was made in Durban, South Africa, in 2001. A graduate of Oxford University, he holds numerous honorary doctorates in law, letters, theology, and oriental and African studies, and has received many awards, including the Abu Bakr Al-Siddique Medal of the Organization of Arab Red Crescent and Red Cross Societies. His most recently published books are To Be a Muslim (2003), Continuity, Innovation and Change: Selected Essays (2001) and In Memory of Faisal I: The Iraqi Question (2003, in Arabic).