ESCWA Executive Secretary Bader Aldafa participated in opening the fifth Arab-European Human Rights Dialogue: Women's Rights, held in Doha from 8 until 10 March 2010. The conference discusses the rights of Arab and European women. AlDafa told participants at the meeting that women take the brunt of daily violations of human rights.
"If human rights are not solidly anchored, especially those concerning women, development may remain an unfeasible goal that is tackled only in studies and reports, and one that we only emphasize in seminars but never see in reality," AlDafa said.
ESCWA Executive Secretary stressed that respect for human rights and basic freedoms without any discrimination based on race, language, sex or religion is a basic principle of the UN Charter. He reviewed some achievements in the field of women's rights, which were mainly made in two areas: education and health. However, he added, this progress remains insufficient.
AlDafa noted that ESCWA accords significant importance to women issues, and it has therefore devoted one of its programs to serve this cause. The Commission works closely with national women machineries to carry out activities in this regard. However, ESCWA noticed in its work with member countries that the basic structure of these machineries may contribute to weakening them, especially if they lack financial resources and accurate data and statistics. Empowering these machineries and strengthening their role require improving their institutional structure and technical capacities, and strengthening their coordination with civil society institutions.
AlDafa mentioned ESCWA's participation in a high-level meeting in New York that examined progress made in implementing the Beijing Platform of Action. ESCWA presented in that meeting its achievements in this field and the challenges remaining. The meeting looked into unifying efforts and securing necessary funds to continue on the path of women's empowerment.
The fifth Arab-European Human Rights Dialogue is organized by Qatar's National Centre for Human Rights and the Dialogue's secretariat, comprising the Danish Institute for Human Rights, the National Centre for Human Rights in Jordan and the Consultative Council for Human Rights in Morocco.
ESCWA was slated to participate in the last session of the conference, where the Head of its Centre for Women Afaf Omer was expected to tackle "The Way Forward" for women issues.
