New York: Qatar says the establishment of the Doha-based United Nations Human Rights Training and Documentation Centre for South West Asia and the Arab Region constitutes an effective tool to further cooperation in capacity building, domestically and regionally through training, documentation and raising awareness on human rights issues.
This was stated yesterday by Sheikh Khalid bin Jassim Al Thani, Director of the Office of Human Rights at the Foreign Ministry, on the occasion of the briefing on the draft resolution on financing the United Nations Human Rights Training and Documentation Centre for South West Asia and the Arab Region based in Doha from the UN regular budget.
“We are of the view that the establishment of the Center constitutes an effective tool to further cooperation in capacity building, domestically and regionally through training, documentation and raising awareness on human rights issues.”
The United Nations Human Rights Training and Documentation Centre for South West Asia and the Arab Region was established in pursuant to GA Resolution A/RES/60/153 which was unanimously adopted in December 2005. The initiative to establish the Centre was supported by many regional and international forums. The idea was conceived by the Office of the High Commissioner during the 12th Annual Workshop on Regional Cooperation for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in the Asia-Pacific which was held from March 2 to 4, 2004 in Doha.”
The mandate of the Centre focuses on training, documentation and building and promoting capacity in the field of human rights. The Centre is called upon to undertake activities that will enable the relevant authorities in the field of human rights to acquire the necessary skills through education and training to allow them to promote and protect human rights at the regional and international levels.
The establishment of this Centre coincided with a major turning point in the history of the United Nations. The human rights regime at the UN is currently undergoing wide scale reforms that will undoubtedly open up horizons for human rights issues within the United Nations System. Opening the Centre also dovetailed with the considerable and growing interest in promoting and protecting human rights in countries covered by the Centre, which have been demonstrated, inter alia by increase in their acceding to human rights international instruments and Universal Periodic Review mechanism, which in turn renders the capacity building for various stakeholders indispensable.
Furthermore, political changes currently underway in the geographic region of the centre confirm the need for a specialised entity that responds to the need for capacity building in the promotion and protection of human rights.
Since its establishment in 2009, the Centre organized several activities in cooperation with the countries of the region. However, the Centre’s sustainability, functioning and success in fulfilling its mandate requires providing the Centre with international staff and operating budget to guarantee its independence, legitimacy and credibility. It is our view that this will only be attainable if the Centre is financed from the United Nations regular budget.
This view is in line with paragraph 71 of the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in document (A/67/36) which clearly states that the center will not be able to discharge its mandate effectively without the allocation of adequate resources on an ongoing basis from the regular budget of the United Nations. To this end and as the Center’s host country, the State of Qatar will submit a draft resolution to the Third Committee requesting that the Center be financed from the United Nations regular budget. This will enable the Center to fulfill its mandate effectively and to render the assistance that will be primarily leveraged by the states of the region. The State of Qatar looks forward to your valuable support for the adoption of this draft resolution.
QNA
