Paris: Qatar has called for international concerted efforts to protect the right to education in multiple regions across the globe, reiterating its condemnation of the Israeli occupation’s targeting of educational and cultural institutions in Palestine.
Addressing the 221st session of Unesco’s Executive Board, currently being convened in Paris, Permanent Representative of Qatar to Unesco H E Dr. Nasser bin Hamad Al Hanzab asserted that safeguarding the right to education in any region is the primary step toward building peace and stability.
He highlighted the partnership between Qatar, the United Nations organisations, and relevant partners, as well as the numerous initiatives and programmes Qatar has launched to put the right to education on the international community’s top priorities.
He noted that the Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) has pitched in to support exceptional initiatives, such as the “Sport for Peace and Development” initiative, in addition to allocating the budget and creating partnerships with the United Nations and the World Bank to effectively execute this initiative.
Al Hanzab reiterated Qatar’s condemnation of the ongoing Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip and Israel’s targeting of educational and cultural institutions, as well as journalists in the occupied Gaza Strip and the West Bank, reaffirming Qatar’s condemnation of the Israeli occupation forces’ bombardment of Dar Al Arqam School and the destruction of a depot run by the Saudi Center for Culture and Heritage in the Gaza Strip, in addition to the targeting of educational and cultural institutions and journalists in conflict zones around the globe.
Qatar believes in the fact that there is no alternative to dialogue and communication with their cultural and humanitarian dimensions.
Therefore, Qatar has made dialogue a core approach in its international relations and interaction with the Arab and global periphery, alongside its humanitarian depth, thereby epitomising its strategy of building bridges of knowledge, love, dialogue, and peace, in addition to deepening ties among the peoples around the world through shared cultural cooperation, Al Hanzab underlined.
He underscored Qatar’s enduring commitment to humanitarian and development action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), stemming from its vision aimed at building more stable and just societies where education remains available for all in all territories around the globe.
