HE Sheikha Hessa bint Khalifa Al Thani, the Special Envoy of the Arab League Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs has praised the great efforts made by the State of Qatar on official, national and civil levels in the field of humanitarian and charity activity as well as assistance to refugees.
Addressing a press conference today, HE Sheikha Hessa described conditions of Arab refugees and displaced persons within their countries in the shadow of the painful Arab reality as “a badge of shame of the forehead of humanity”, calling on all to support them and alleviate their suffering.
She stressed that she will benefit from her previous experiences specially when she occupied the post of the special rapporteur of the United Nations for disability affairs to support and champion refugees and affected people, noting that the most important means of such championing are field visits, documentation of events and conveying the image to all those who could have influence on changing this reality. In this respect, Sheikha Hessa referred to the visits she paid to syrian refugees in Syria’s neighbouring countries and Yemeni refugees in Djibouti in addition to her visits to North Darfur and South Kordufan in Sudan.
She added that the many visits which she had planned to pay to refugees in the Arab region have postponed due to political complications and reasons beyond reach.
The UN official called for the innovation of new protection mechanisms as one of the means to support refugees that would be at a high level of legal criteria in order to provide protection at camps and ensure a decent and safe living to refugees, in addition to innovation of national protection by host states and governments as well as the concerned agencies including international organization and the refugees themselves.
Sheikha Hessa reviewed the missions she was entrusted to carry out since her appointment as the Special Envoy of the Arab League Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs in March 2013, explaining that her duties include field visits, preparation of studies and researches, filing of reports and the establishment of relations with humanitarian activities organizations especially in the Arab world, stressing that support should be on multi-party level rather than on the bilateral level and through cooperation to attract support and participation. She also pointed out that there are working programmes and a strategy for each year based on such missions and international humanitarian charters.
She underlined the importance of the work of all Arab humanitarian, charity and voluntary organization under one umbrella, confirming her readiness to shoulder the responsibility of realizing the required coordination in this field.