The State of Qatar affirmed that it attaches great importance to promoting and protecting children’s rights, stressing its belief that education has a vital and essential role in protecting children.
This came in the State of Qatar’s statement delivered by Second Secretary of the State of Qatar’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations (UN) Sheikha Al Maha bint Mubarak Al-Thani, before the Third Committee of the 78th UN General Assembly on the promotion and protection of the rights of children.
The statement stated that the State of Qatar attaches great importance to promoting and protecting childrens rights, manifestly in the State of Qatars enactment of a host of legislation, and taking administrative and practical measures and procedures in many fields at the national, regional and international levels, in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030 and its obligations towards the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which it joined in 1992 and ratified in 1995. It added that the State of Qatar had es
tablished appropriate mechanisms concerned with childrens rights, including the Protection and Social Rehabilitation Center (AMAN), under the umbrella of the Qatar Social Work Foundation, which aims to raise awareness of child protection and build institutional capacities in this area.
The statement stressed the State of Qatars belief that education has a vital and essential role in protecting children, enabling them to realize their rights and transform into decision-makers, by building their necessary capacities to obtain job opportunities in the future. Therefore, the State of Qatar has established one of the world’s most advanced educational systems, which received a government expenditure of nearly about 3.3 percent of the country’s GDP in 2019 – one of the highest public expending rates in the Middle East and North Africa, according to the Word Bank. Nearly QR 19.2 billion (USD 5.3 billion) was allocated to the education sector from the budget, which represents about 9.3 percent of total expenditures a
llocated to the education sector and child care institutions.
The statement also highlighted the State of Qatar’s support for efforts to promote and protect children’s rights to education, through many initiatives of the government and civil society institutions in the State of Qatar and providing quality education opportunities for children, whether citizens or residents.
With regard to enhancing the protection of children, the statement stated that the State of Qatar has not overlooked the role of technological development and the opportunities it provides in the digital field for education and enhancing the protection of childrens rights. In this field, the Qatar Social Work Foundation launched in 2018 the ‘Help Me’ app, as the first e-service for children that enables them to request help via mobile phone in case they are harmed.
At the level of regional and international cooperation, the statement indicated that the State of Qatars interest in education went beyond providing this right to its national
s and residents, with the State of Qatar having implemented international and regional initiatives aimed at providing quality education to millions of children who have been deprived due to poverty, armed conflicts, insecurity, and disasters. Among these initiatives, for example, are the “Protecting Education in Conflict and Insecurity” program – a founding member of the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA), and the “Educate a Child” program – an unprecedented initiative that enrolled 10 million children in schooling through implementing over 65 projects in 50 countries, in partnership with 82 global partners.
The statement carried the State of Qatars pride in its close partnership with the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, and hosting and financially supporting its Doha-based Analysis and Outreach Hub for the years 2018-2023. The State of Qatar also expressed pride in its partnership with UNICEF to implement many projects and
programs, which contributed to saving the lives of children, defending their rights and helping them achieve their potential, including the opening of the UNESCO Regional Office as part of the UN House in Doha in March. Qatar also expressed pride in the 10-year partnership between UNICEF and Qatar’s Education Above All Foundation (EAA), which has achieved a major transformation in the lives of over five million children and young people in 17 countries, through their joint programs, which were reflected in “A Decade of Dreams” exhibition, held in partnership with UNICEF in New York on Sep. 13, 2023, to mark 10 years of effective and fruitful cooperation to change the lives of millions of children around the world, as well as achieving global progress towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially the fourth goal, which relates to quality and comprehensive education for all.
The statement also referred to the strategic partnership signed in 2021 between the Qatar Fund for Developmen
t (QFFD), Ooredoo Qatar and UNICEF, which aims to transform the lives of millions of children around the world and help them recover after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Source: Qatar News Agency