DOHA: The National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) announced on Sunday that it will organize the first national forum on human rights from September 12-13, 2022.
The forum will focus on the role of law enforcement agencies in protecting human rights during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, with the participation of competent authorities including the Ministry of Labor, Ministry of Sports & Youth, and UN Human Rights Training and Documentation Centre.
NHRC said that the forum intends to promote awareness of the importance of the human rights approach in the work of law enforcement agencies within the framework of the national performance undertaken to provide components for the success of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, thus ensuring a safe and secure tournament.
Chairman of NHRC HE Maryam bint Abdullah Al Attiyah emphasized that the forum acquires utmost importance as it comes within the framework of the preparations made to organize FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, which she said is a historic event and represents the first global Mondial to be held in the Arab region and the Middle East, noting the synergetic efforts of the whole spectrum of the society, whether individuals, groups or institutions to achieve groundbreaking and distinctive experience that crucially demonstrates the soft power of the state of Qatar in the sporting field and renaissance, including the provision of the necessary infrastructure assets to hold this global football tournament, pointing out that the forum has inherent positive indications that manifestly reflect the keenness of NHRC to ensure human rights respect and observing their national and international standards in the context of the preparations and arrangements that have been set for the Mondial,
Additionally, it aims to develop the national dialogue platform with the entire competent authorities in Qatar, including law enforcement agencies in order to work together for the success of the tournament through pursuing a human rights approach, which is held in the context of the effective and fruitful partnership between NHRC & Human Rights Department at Ministry of Interior, and in implementation of the MoU signed between the two parties in 2017, as well as the privacy of the role undertaken by the assigned law enforcement personnel (police members) in providing the security requirements for this tournament during the whole period of the Mondial, and the sensitivity of their responsibility in carrying out this mission based on the legitimacy principle and human rights values, as those security personnel constitute the primary line in dealing with the Mondial fans with the requirement of legal, behavioral and professional skills coupled with moral and ethical fitness, as well as social and cultural intelligence with the highest level.
She asserted that the forum will essentially raise the awareness of the Qatari community in general, and those operating in law enforcement agencies in particular, on the importance of the right to sports as one of the key human rights pillars, including its role in promoting human dignity, tolerance values, and international solidarity. Likewise, NHRC clarified in its statement that the two-day forum will discuss the objective and human imperatives that set sports within the human rights system as a creative human activity and further explore the extent how which the right to sports helps promote human rights.
The forum will further discuss the fundamental features of the preventive awareness efforts within this framework that can be carried out by the concerned security agencies, Media institutions and Qatari intellectual elites from opinion leaders.
The forum represents an occasion to further inspect the preparations made by public and private institutions to be evaluated, including law enforcement agencies, in organizing the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and the latest degree of readiness to handle emerging security challenges when preparing to host the global event, from a human rights perspective.
The forum seeks to learn lessons from previous experiences hosting major sporting events, particularly with respect to the prediction of the potential human rights violations and setting the essential plans required to proactively monitor and prevent them, as well as the anticipated recommendations and proposals from this forum that would prompt the success of Mondial and the sports movement in Qatar stemming from the existing human rights approach.