Ashraf Siddiqui
Doha
“The year 2024 marks the twentieth anniversary of the issuance of the Permanent Constitution of the State of Qatar. We, as Qataris, are proud of what our Constitution has included in terms of the wide scope for the rule of law, justice, peace and human rights for all, including women and children,” Qatar’s National Human Rights Committee Vice-Chairman Dr. Mohammed bin Saif Al-Kuwari has said.
Addressing a gathering at an exhibition organised by NHRC Qatar on the sidelines of the 57th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva under the title ‘Promoting and protecting the rights of women and children in times of armed conflict’, Al Kuwari said: “Qatar’s Constitution has translated our hopes and aspirations to build a modern state that seeks to achieve peace and sustainable development for its people generation after generation.”
Present on the occasion were Minister of Social Development and Family HE Maryam bint Ali bin Nasser Al Misnad and Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the UN Office in Geneva HE Dr. Hind Abdulrahman Al Muftah.
“Today, Qatar is participating with the United Nations in the efforts to promote peace, sustainable development and human dignity for current and future generations, and believes that the future of humanity is conditional on international cooperation, respect for international law and on leaving no one behind,” he said.
Armed conflicts undermine human rights, with women and children, including girls, being the most prominent victims, Al Kuwari further said. In that context, he pointed out that a report released by UNICEF in 2022 disclosed that 104,100 children were killed and injured in armed conflict situations between 2005 and 2020. The United Nations Women’s Organization verified 2,455 cases of sexual violence related to armed conflict in 2022, and that does not include cases that went unreported.
He pointed out that incidents of violence targeting women around the world increased by 16.1 times between 2005 and 2020, and that more than half of them occurred in countries affected by armed conflicts. Outbreak of conflicts in Ukraine, Palestine, Sudan and other places have further aggravated the situation.
He further pointed out that 70% of the victims of wars in the Arab region are women and children, according to a report prepared by the United Nations Women’s Organization and the Arab Women’s Organization.
Al-Kuwari said that the NHRC has prepared a list of recommendations for promoting and protecting the rights of women and children in times of armed conflict, as well as in peace time.
The NHRC, he said, aims to establish a culture of peace, human rights and the rule of law, with the principles of justice, tolerance, accountability and non-impunity, most notably contributing to supporting and building the capacities of Arab national human rights institutions in areas of armed conflict, such as Palestine, Sudan, Libya and Iraq.
He laid stress on the need to build a national mechanism to protect rights of different groups including vulnerable sections such as women, children, minorities, refugees and human rights defenders. He also underlined the need for following up on the conditions of civilians evacuated from Afghanistan in 2021, and from Palestine in 2024, to Doha, including women and children, to ensure that they enjoy food, health and educational relief.
Talking about the exhibition, Dr. Al-Kuwari said that it had creative works in Arabic calligraphy related to human rights in Islamic culture, which in turn, are based on verses from the Holy Quran and hadiths contemporary with human rights principles adopted 1,400 years ago, centuries before the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The exhibition of human rights paintings in Islamic culture has been organised since 2009 in many European and Arab capitals, including Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Athens, Brussels, Washington, Tunisia, Kuwait, in addition to organising the exhibition at the United Nations headquarters in New York and Geneva.
