The State of Qatar has participated in the 4th Regional Arab Conference for Protection and Promotion of Human Rights that was kicked off Monday in the Secretariat General of the Arab League under the title “The impact of crises on human rights enjoyment: COVID-19 pandemic as a model.”
Director of the Human Rights Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dr. Turki bin Abdulla Al Mahmoud chaired the State of Qatar’s delegation to the meeting.
The two-day conference, which is co-organized by the Arab League and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, intends to inspect the impact and consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on human rights in the region, in addition to highlighting the strenuous efforts made to mitigate the pandemic fallout economically and socially and further diagnose the underlying challenges, as well as draw the lessons learned and explore the broad lines of the future road map to achieve the sustainable development goals.
In her inaugural remarks delivered to the conference, Assistant Secretary-General and Head of the Social Affairs Sector at the Arab League (LAS) Ambassador Haifa Abu Ghazaleh said that the selection of the conference topic was imposed by a myriad of very delicate circumstances represented in COVID-19 pandemic, pointing out that after nearly two years of strict precautionary measures and their consequences at various levels, it was essential to collate, study and analyze the remnants of the pandemic, and to draw lessons to further build the future in a manner that ensures social and economic stability, adding that the event guarantees the rights of individuals and communities.
She indicated that overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic requires synergetic efforts, involving the entire actors, receiving the contribution of the community with its entire wide spectrum of categories to promote fundamental rights, uphold the spirit and values of solidarity and social solidarity in addition to promoting the coordination between the official authorities and the relevant civil institutions for the sake of efforts integration and avoid repetition.
Ambassador Haifa Abu Ghazaleh asserted the importance of the role undertaken by the civil society organizations in the dissemination of knowledge, contribution to the efforts dedicated to establishing peace and security, promoting stability and growth that are congruent with the official efforts and national legislations, in addition to the essential training on crisis management, coordination with the influential entities regionally and internationally and support the public opinion’s relevant sectors such as Media and cultural sectors.
United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al Nashif pointed out that the conference convenes after 20 years of the signing of the memorandum of intent between the League of Arab States and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on April 17, 2002, where the cooperation has resulted in organizing a vital number of training sessions, in addition to three regional conferences, pointing out that the first conference was convened in 2014 under the title: Human Rights in the Arab World: A Regional Perspective.
Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs