Qatar

With respect to enhancing the role of women, the State of Qatar has taken a special interest in the participation of women in the political field through many initiatives aimed at enabling women to play their full role in various areas, including the political and economic fields. Women have been appointed to important positions, including as ministers. The wife of the Amir of Qatar has supported educational, research and development programmes. The State of Qatar has adopted a preventive policy so as to protect human rights, in particular the rights of women. That was reflected in our 2013 plan, which states that women have a very important role to play in our society, particularly by participating in decision-making processes, especially in the economic and social fields.

It is troubling that, even as we are holding this meeting, many women and girls in various parts of the world, including in the Arab world, are being subjected to forms of violence that lead to their killing and to the displacement of millions of people, especially women and children, who are more vulnerable and therefore more affected by such situations. They are exposed in particular to sexual violence and to psychological and physical violence. Women and girls are exposed to the worst kinds of violence resulting from conflict in our region, and they bear the brunt of that violence. In the Arab region, women in Palestine suffer from the unjust measures taken by the Israeli occupiers. Women in the Syrian Arab Republic are exposed to discrimination and to psychological and sexual violence, detention and imprisonment. Those acts are crimes against humanity and war crimes. The conflict in Syria has forced women and girls to flee from cities because of a lack of security and a lack of humanitarian access to those women and girls. That was reiterated in the report of the Secretary- General on sexual violence in conflict.