Geneva (UNA/QNA) - The State of Qatar has affirmed its firm belief in the power of diplomacy and dialogue in resolving conflicts, and that its foreign policy is based on a set of principles aimed at consolidating international cooperation and encouraging peaceful resolution of disputes.
This came in the statement of the State of Qatar, delivered by Ms. Sarah Abdulaziz Al Khater, First Secretary of the Permanent Mission of the State of Qatar in Geneva, during a side event organized by the Qatar Red Crescent on the sidelines of the 34th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent in Geneva, entitled /Humanitarian Diplomacy: Key Issues, Challenges and Opportunities to Enhance Effectiveness/.
Al Khater noted that the State of Qatar, based on its firm commitment to international development and humanitarian assistance, signed an agreement in which it pledged to contribute $500 million to a number of various United Nations programmes. The United Nations House in Doha was also inaugurated in March 2023, with the aim of unifying the work of the United Nations regionally and internationally, as well as facilitating ways to enhance cooperation between the State of Qatar and the international organisation.
She added that the State of Qatar has been keen to provide support and assistance to various humanitarian and development initiatives, especially in the education and health sectors, providing job opportunities for youth, economic empowerment, and supporting refugees, displaced persons, and their host communities. It is also keen to enhance coordination and work with the international community to achieve the goals of sustainable development and rapid response to humanitarian emergencies, to alleviate the human suffering of vulnerable and needy groups and preserve their dignity.
Al Khater pointed out that in the framework of supporting humanitarian diplomacy, the Doha Forum, which is scheduled to be held from 7 to 8 December, recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the World Humanitarian Summit, with the aim of enhancing the role of humanitarian diplomacy through close cooperation and dialogue. The World Humanitarian Summit will participate in this year’s edition of the forum, which will discuss the topic of “The Inevitability of Innovation”, with the participation of the most prominent leaders, policy makers, thinkers and influencers from around the world, with the aim of addressing the most pressing issues, through a number of high-level sessions on humanitarian diplomacy.
In this regard, she pointed out the State of Qatar's pride in receiving the "Humanitarian Diplomacy Champion" award for 2024 from the General Assembly of the Parliament of the Mediterranean, which reflects the regional and international appreciation of Qatari diplomacy and its effective roles, especially on the humanitarian level, and its efforts to achieve peace, and active diplomacy to deliver humanitarian and relief aid in support of sisterly and friendly countries in times of hardship, natural disasters and armed conflicts, such as the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, Afghanistan and Sudan, and Qatari mediation to stop the aggression on the Gaza Strip, and the success of its mediation between Russia and Ukraine to reunite children from both sides with their families after they were separated by war.
She expressed the State of Qatar's emphasis on the need to respect international humanitarian law, the Charter and resolutions of the United Nations, and to preserve the credibility of the global system, which has been greatly undermined, in light of the heinous crimes and serious violations of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions witnessed by the world as a result of the Israeli aggression on Gaza and Lebanon, where the number of civilian victims has reached more than 45 martyrs, and the number of wounded and injured has exceeded 100 people, in addition to millions of displaced and homeless people, most of whom are children and women, and the massive and deliberate destruction of civilian facilities, especially homes, schools and hospitals, and the targeting of humanitarian relief workers, United Nations employees and international humanitarian organizations and the prevention of the delivery of humanitarian aid.
Al Khater called on the international community to move away from double standards in condemning violations and holding perpetrators accountable, saying, “The human spirit and dignity that we all bear the responsibility of preserving are one and the same, and it is not permissible to condemn the killing of civilians here and justify it there, otherwise the logic of force will prevail over the force of logic and we will return to the law of the jungle.”
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