Sheikha Hessa Al Thani: I wish a quantitative and qualitative presence of women in leadership positions

Dialogue: Imad Murad

Sheikha Hessa bint Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani, the special envoy of the Secretary-General of the Arab League for Humanitarian Affairs, expressed surprise at the failure of the Arab League relief teams to arrive in Yemen or Libya, despite the presence of a large number of international organizations active in the field of humanitarian work.

Sheikha Hessa stressed - in a private dialogue with Al-Jazeera Net - that the Arab world is going through the most difficult times and the most catastrophic crises on the human level, noting that despite the inability of the Arab League to succeed politically; many other aspects of the university are still trying to play its role At the relief and humanitarian level, but it faces many difficulties.

The Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the Arab League for Humanitarian Affairs stressed that the Disability and Development Conference that was held on the seventh and eighth of this December in Doha is an awareness channel to raise awareness about persons with disabilities, calling for the necessity of converting words and good intentions regarding the rights of persons with disabilities into actions Effective on the ground, given that making cities accessible to all requires the provision of basic services in those cities such as ease of movement for people with disabilities, and the availability of job opportunities for them.

Here are the details of the interview:

How do you evaluate the role of the League of Arab States in the humanitarian field?
The Arab world is going through the most difficult times, the most catastrophic crises on the human level, and there are issues that are getting more complicated and issues frozen. The Arab League is not a foreign body from the Arab world; it is a body that represents the Arab member states, and it is the Arab regimes, and it is the political decision-maker. The League has not been able to succeed politically and things are still going on in this way. I am not here to evaluate the political framework of the university, but I can evaluate the university on the social, developmental and humanitarian levels. In this framework, the university has taken some steps, but still needs more.

What role should societies play in refugee issues?
First, there is the role of refugee host societies, and their role is to absorb them and provide them with the services they need, under all religious, ethical, legal and cultural frameworks, without prejudice to their dignity and respect for their humanity and their rights.

Communities that represent the donors must provide the necessary support to the refugees, so that they meet their needs at the relief and development levels, and they must always allocate part of the support to the countries hosting the refugees in order to help them bear the economic burden that is increasing on them with the increase in the number of refugees and their needs, and this creates a balance In the relations between the citizen in those countries and the refugee.

Why did you choose to specialize in the troubled humanitarian field?
Everyone has a role in society created for him, and he must play it to the fullest, and the State of Qatar nominated me a while ago to be a special rapporteur of the United Nations Secretary-General for Disabilities, and during this position I focused on migrants, refugees, marginalized and minorities with disabilities, including women and children, Especially after the events of the Israeli bombing of Lebanon in 2006, hence the focus on these groups that I found myself dealing with and overcoming the difficulties before them.

After the end of my work as a special rapporteur, I found that humanitarian and voluntary work is the closest to myself, and I felt that this work is the most beloved to my heart, then Qatar nominated me to work in humanitarian affairs at the League of Arab States in 2013, and I was very pleased with that because I wanted to continue working in the region Many Arab women are suffering from tragedies, and from this began work as the Secretary General of the Arab League for Humanitarian Affairs.

What efforts did you make during your work in the Arab League?
I am trying to contribute to the humanitarian aspect within the university. An Arab asylum agreement is on its way to recognition, and we hope that this will be done quickly, and there are many decisions regarding working on the issue of refugees at the current stage.

The university has many roles in the management of women and children and the administration of education, and there is an initiative called "education and return", an initiative that will be applied to refugee camps, and its goal is to assess the humanitarian educational conditions of refugees, and work to meet their needs in this aspect, and we are trying through the evaluation to reach solutions and suggestions for the role For the university in this.

What difficulties do you face in humanitarian work within the Arab League?
Of course, the most important difficulty facing me is the catastrophic political changes in the region, the conditions and data facing the humanitarian work, and the simplest example that I am supposed to visit to Yemen and Libya - for example - to see the humanitarian conditions there, but this matter has not been done yet, while there are international organizations and associations She works in Yemen and is present regularly.

In addition, there is a bureaucracy and red tape that stand in the way of achieving some actions, but the humanitarian aspects that I implement and stem from the tasks of my work as an envoy; I find great support from the Secretary-General of the Arab League, we move easily in this area despite the difficulties that limit the human side. However, the most important difficulties remain that you cannot reach the affected people in Libya and Yemen.

What about the support that humanitarian action receives in the Arab League?
My hope is to get support to activate humanitarian action, amidst these great challenges that the region is going through, and not necessarily that the support be financial, but through partnerships or programs and joint projects.

Indeed, I implemented a number of them, such as the "Sports and Peace" initiative, and worked with it on the Aspire Qatar Academy, and through which we established a team of refugee youth under the name "Syrian Dream", and this team came to Qatar, and it underwent all kinds of training and education required, and we hope that it will take place. Completion of the implementation of the other stages of the initiative, in partnership with the Projects and Inheritance Committee, through its international region program. There are other activities with the "Safe Dream" initiative of the Sports Security Center.

The work is not limited to dealing with Qatari institutions, but indeed these are the bodies that serve this aspect.

You always talk about documenting humanitarian action. Why?
Documentation will be a key to achieving the goals and needs of the humanitarian side. There are interested and working parties in the field of humanitarian and charitable work. There are donors, United Nations organizations, the Arab League and Islamic Cooperation, each of which has its own tools, and documentation will help to identify all international tools on the humanitarian side.

Where did the position of women in humanitarian work reach?
Women exist and work greatly, and I started working voluntarily, and before they had an institutional role, they led a lot of teams to places that are difficult to reach, but what is required is the presence of women in humanitarian work in the positions they deserve, in leadership positions and not just increasing the number, I hope there is Digitally, quantitatively and qualitatively larger, meaning that women are in leadership positions.

What did the Disability and Development Conference held in Qatar recently achieve?
The Disability and Development Conference is an international conference based on the sustainable development goals, and it is one of the important conferences at all levels, whether international, regional or local; because it is an awareness channel to raise awareness about persons with disabilities, and the importance of issues related to their rights.

It is also a platform that attracted the most important experts in the field of people with disabilities, and discussed important issues and issues related to the basic rights of persons with disabilities at the basic and developmental levels, education, health, reproductive health and statistics and data policies. I believe the sessions largely covered various issues and the rights of people with disabilities.

Among the issues that concern me as an envoy of the Secretary-General of the Arab League for Humanitarian Relief, I was very happy to raise the issue of asylum in most of the sessions, and this shows the extent of awareness of the rights of all persons with disabilities, whether they are within society or in difficult environments such as refugee environments or host cities.

It is a very important issue that we all have awareness of, and we also have a responsibility towards these people, whether from the host countries to absorb them within the programs offered to them, or by the donors of the host countries to allocate an item to support persons with disabilities in the refugee camps.

Do you think that the Disability and Development Conference will have a major impact?
The impact of the Disability and Development Conference is clear, and the large participation in all of its sessions indicates a local and international interest in issues of people with disabilities, as well as the dialogues that took place; they all bode well.

In addition to the papers presented during the sessions, they are all important papers dealing with issues related to people with disabilities, and these papers can constitute guides for other countries, especially in our Arab world with adaptation according to the framework of cultures in our countries, and according to the capabilities and needs.

But the Doha Declaration contained general recommendations. So what is your comment on these recommendations?
The Doha Declaration put the points on the letters .. The recommendations were general, but each item could be converted into an integrated plan of action, because it is subject to that and can be implemented.

Good intentions regarding the rights of persons with disabilities must be transformed into effective measures on the ground. In the context of cities and accessibility, cities must be made accessible to all, and this requires the provision of basic services such as ease of movement for people with disabilities, and providing them with job opportunities. A good example of this is the State of Qatar, which has developed an engineering guide for buildings to accommodate persons with disabilities since 2006.

What are the challenges for developing countries in terms of accessibility for people with disabilities?
Developing countries face great challenges. The issue of access within cities in developing countries is not always easy, and there is an experience that lived in the United Kingdom when the old buildings in the British capital London were rehabilitated to make them eligible for people with disabilities, as this required a double cost than that which is spent in the case of building design Since its establishment, it has been complying with these specifications and is eligible to receive persons with disabilities.