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Statement Of
Dr. Khalid Bin Mohamed Al Attiyah
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs
In the Opening Ceremony of the 3rd Ministerial Meeting of
the
Non-Aligned Movement on the Advancement of Women
Doha - 12 - 14 / 2 / 2012
Your Excellencies
Ladies and Gentleman
Dear Guests:
I shall take pleasure at the beginning of this speech to
express the State of Qatar’s welcome, government and people,
to you all, wishing you a happy stay in Qatar. On this
occasion I extend my best thanks to the government of the
Republic of Egypt for the efforts it has exerted with us in
the capacity of being the current chairperson of the
movement and for the co-operation with us so as to make this
meeting successful.
I would like also to commend the efforts exerted by Malaysia
and Guatemala who hosted the first and the second
ministerial meetings, respectively.
Holding this meeting comes as a completion to the
achievements made in the previous two ministerial
conferences which contributed to enhancing efforts aiming at
the advancement of women and establishment their empowerment
economically, socially and politically. This is an indicator
of the real attention given by the states of Non-Aligned
Movement NAM on the advancement Women as a major pillar of
development.
Your Excellencies
Most countries of the world have witnessed in the last
decades a transformation at the level of the legal merits of
women in several of walks of life, so as to empower them,
achieve their advancement and enhance and protect their
rights.
Regardless of the efforts exerted by the governments,
concerned agencies of the United Nations and civil society
organizations in this regards, women and currently still
facing many challenges and obstacles. Societal and legal
discrimination between men and women is still causing a
frightening impediment in the way in empowering women to
practice all their rights.
Women are still, to a great extend, subject to suffering due
to poverty and need. They are the most susceptible to the
negative impact of armed conflict situations. In many of the
developing countries rates of mortality are still high to an
unacceptable degree, and women are still facing challenges
such as discrimination, imbalance in accessing equal
opportunities in work, education and participation in
decision making.
This discrimination is no more accepted in the second
millennium, and is seen as one of the major obstacles in the
way of human development and in achieving the MDGs as
illustrated in the UN report of 2011 – 2012 on the
advancement of women in the world.
Ladies and Gentlemen
Since the accession of HH the Emir, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa
Al-Thani, “May God protect him” the State of Qatar believes
deeply in the importance of women empowerment in order to
practice all their political, social and economical rights.
This belief is incorporated in the constitution and the
effective legislations in Qatar, especially establishing the
principles of equality in public rights and obligations
among all citizens; men and women alike. In addition, Qatar
acceded many international and regional charts and
conventions that establish women’s rights. At the
institutional level, many institutions, government and non-
government bodies have been established in Qatar; and all
these work on enhancement and protection of women’s rights
and eradication of all manifestations against women.
In this context, the Qatari women have attained top
positions in the public institutions and agencies, and in
the private sector, including assuming the offices
ministers. The Qatari women are also remarkably contributing
to the advancement of the country.
In this regards the role of Her Highness Sheikha Moza Bint
Nasser, spouse of the Emir “may God protect her” is
prominent in enhancing the humanitarian context and women
empowerment through economical, social and developmental
initiatives and contributions that Her Highness carries out.
These initiatives and contributions are not restrictive to
the local level; rather, they go beyond that to reach the
regional and international levels.
I would like to point out here that the launch of Qatar
Vision 2030 has comprised enhancement of women capacities
and empowering them to fully participate in all walks of
life, especially in the roles of decision making, in
addition to increasing the opportunities before them to
access professional support. In realization of this Vision,
the State has launched the national development strategy
2011-2016 which includes national programs of priorities and
goals that guarantee the empowerment of women through
building capacities and elimination of the various
constraints.
Your Excellencies
I would like here to emphasize the special importance of
this meeting where its theme is coping with developments the
international community is witnessing these days. The theme
of this meeting is a factor influencing the advancement of
our Arab region under the so called “Arab Spring”
revolutions which have strong indications. A prominent
positive feature and a turning point of this Arab spring
were the leading and clear participation of the Arab women
in them.
Therefore preparation of good environment for women and
increased participation by women in all fields shall
contribute to reaching the world that we are aspiring for; a
world were values of justice, equality and freedom are
respected!
Your Excellencies
Ladies and Gentlemen
The theme of advancement of women cannot be realized unless
much work is done to eliminate the impediments that hinder
women from practicing their human rights or prevent them
from contributing to and benefiting from development efforts
with all meanings, including economical, social, cultural
political and civilian meanings.
In this regards, the basic responsibility for advancement of
women lies in the first instance upon the shoulders of
governments who should play a leading role in drawing
strategies, work plans, and implementation of programs
aiming at eradicating poerty and illiteracy. All of this
should guarantee equal opportunities of women to access
education, training and jobs. The international community
has also to support all national exerted for the advancement
of women, especially in the developing countries.
We, in the State of Qatar, are determined to go on with
supporting all efforts of women and emowering them
economically, socially and politically. We also stress on
directing support to the least developed countries LDCs to
help them adopt effective steps so as to achieve the MDGs.
Finally,
I am looking to seeing your active participation that shall
shape the targeted goal of this meeting, and allow me to
welcome you all again, wishing this meeting all success.
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