The Shura Council State of Qatar

 HE Deputy Speaker of the Shura Council Dr. Hessa bint Hassan Al Sulaiti affirmed the State of Qatar’s commitment to supporting women and enhancing their role across various developmental and societal fields. She also called for empowering women and strengthening their participation in achieving global peace.

In her speech at the opening of the Third International Forum Woman of the Third Millennium, which began today in Moscow and will continue for two days, she said that under its wise leadership, the State of Qatar has set a model for empowering women, providing all means to enable Qatari women to become active partners in the national development process.

She added that women in Qatar now play a pivotal role in the labor market, in addition to their role in nurturing and caring for families, making them key supporters of men and foundational to the stability and prosperity of the nation.

Her Excellency emphasized the importance of this forum in fostering dialogue on women’s issues and the challenges they face, especially in light of current crises in certain troubled regions. She highlighted the suffering of millions of women and girls in conflict areas, who are subjected to severe abuses beyond domestic violence, including displacement, blockade, starvation, and violence, stressing that these crimes require immediate international intervention to protect women’s rights amidst wars and conflicts.

She also noted the atrocities committed against women in Palestine and Lebanon due to brutal aggression and genocidal campaigns by the occupying Israeli forces that have persisted without pause for more than a year, resulting in over 43,000 deaths, most of whom were women, children, the elderly, and the sick. She called this one of the worst crimes in modern history, witnessed in silence by the international community.

Addressing issues of peace and security, Al Sulaiti emphasized the need to empower women to participate effectively in peace processes and reconstruction efforts, in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, which acknowledges the vital role of women in peacemaking and addressing the impacts of violence. She added that excluding women from these processes undermines efforts to achieve sustainable peace.

She expressed hope for more efforts in the coming phase to protect women in conflict areas and to include this as a key item in international law. She called for reform of the international system, underscoring the importance of a United Nations that can implement its resolutions and protect human rights. She stressed that the international community faces a true challenge to prove its commitment to holding violators of women’s rights in conflict and war zones accountable.

In a related context, the Deputy Speaker participated in a discussion session on the power of soft diplomacy as part of the forum's first day. She noted the importance of soft diplomacy as the popular dimension of diplomatic work. She pointed out that people-to-people communication has become stronger and more influential than government-to-government communication, with soft diplomacy now acting as a driver and guide for countries' foreign policies. She encouraged women to continue their efforts in education and digital technology to achieve the desired success of soft diplomacy for women in this third millennium.

She emphasized that the State of Qatar places significant importance on educating women at all levels and in all specializations, alongside training and qualifying them in all professional sectors, which has enabled Qatari women to assume leadership positions in various fields and make effective contributions across a wide range of areas.

In her remarks, she highlighted Qatar’s substantial influence in international and regional relations, attributing this to its utilization of soft diplomacy. She added that the State of Qatar has distinguished itself through positive relations with all nations, significant contributions to peace efforts, and combating terrorism, earning the worlds trust as a neutral mediator for resolving disputes in various regions as a result.

The Deputy Speaker concluded by reiterating Qatar’s commitment to enhancing its soft diplomatic power through the embodiment of ideas, principles, and ethics, for a world that is safer, more prosperous, and just.

The Woman of the Third Millennium International Forum serves as a platform for uniting female leaders to exchange experiences and learn about best practices to discuss the role of women in the modern world. The forum discusses the growing role of women and the challenges they face in various fields, with the participation of prominent figures and representatives from women's organizations in Russia and around the world.