(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) Geneva April 09 (QNA) - The State of Qatar has reiterated its firm stance rejecting violent extremism and terrorism in all their forms and whatever their motives and its support for regional and international efforts to eliminate them as well as the fight against impunity the protection of human rights and support the right of freedom of peoples in freedom dignity and self-determination.
This came in a speech delivered by HE Ambassador Faisal bin Abdullah Al Henzab Permanent Representative of Qatar to the United Nations Office and International Organizations in Geneva at the international conference on the Secretary-General of the United Nations plan to prevent violent extremism.
HE Ambassador Al Henzab said that this conference is being held under extremely complicated international circumstances where there are disputes and conflicts and the international community suffers from the spread of the scourge of violent extremism and terrorism and the spread of hate speeches and violence instead of speeches of tolerance and coexistence in a way that threatens the security and international stability and efforts to promote and protect human rights and sustainable development.
HE Al Henzab said : "In this regard we stress the importance of not using terms such as extremists and terrorists and terrorism in abusive manner to a particular religious or ethnic group. He added that the attempt by some quarters to exploit incidents of individual violence to link extremism with particular religion such as islamophobia would undermine efforts to determine the causes of the fact that fuel extremism and ways to address them and the abuse of religious symbols would give excuses for extremists to recruit more supporters to their thoughts.
"Qatar emphasizes the importance of strengthening cooperation at international and national levels in the face of violent extremism phenomenon as well as integration of the government's efforts with local communities and civil society especially politicians clergymen and the media and that the actions taken in this area are to be compatible with the obligations of States and with principles and purposes of the UN Charter and relevant international laws HE Al Henzab noted.
Al Hezab added that n light of the inability of strategies that focus on solutions and security measures the State of Qatar emphasizes the need to give the plan of action to prevent violent extremism great attention with a view to addressing the motives of violent extremism and the circumstances of its origins its causes such as a continuation of disputes and conflicts and occupation exclusion discrimination marginalization the absence of social justice and the State of institutions and the continued oppression of peoples depriving them of their legitimate rights by authoritarian regimes. " To deal with this major challenge requires a unified international response to an integrated strategy that works to end conflicts and crises in the world the first and foremost of which are ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Arab territories and the establishment of an independent State of Palestine with full sovereignty as well as to reach an urgent political solution to end the Syrian crisis and meet the legitimate demands of the Syrian people according to GENEVA 1 statement and the relevant resolutions HE Al Henzab underlined.
The State of Qatar also emphasizes the important role of youth and women and education in the fight against violent extremism said HE Al Henzab referring to the initiative presented by Qatar in collaboration with a number of countries to convene a high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly on June 3 2016 in New York on children and young people affected by extremism and violent and efforts for their re-integration them into society which we hope would contribute to the protection of young people from falling into the clutches of terrorism and extremism and upgrading them to build their future and their communities he added.
HE Al Henzab also highlighted Qatar's important role in mediation in conflict prevention and in supporting peaceful transitions and promoting national reconciliation where the Qatari diplomacy had succeeded in containing many crises and conflicts and contributed to the rebuilding of many of the areas affected by the conflict. The State of Qatar is a founding member of the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF) and is one of its biggest donors in order to contribute to strengthening the capacity to cope with the phenomenon of violent extremism in addition Qatar had established of several institutions that aim to spread the culture of coexistence tolerance and dialogue among civilizations and religions and the fight against extremism notably the Doha interfaith dialogue Center and the Hamad bin Khalifa Islamic Cultural Centre in Denmark. " HE Al Henzab noted He also noted that Qatar Committee for Alliance of Civilizations had developed the State's plan for the Alliance 2014-2016 which aims to remove the causes of lack of understanding and division among nations and peoples and the adoption of well-established relationships among them featuring four areas that include education youth migration and media .(END)