A high-profile delegation from Qatar Red Crescent (QRC) recently participated in the second meeting of the committee of top officials of Red Crescent societies in the GCC countries.
The event was hosted over two days by Kuwait Red Crescent in Kuwait City with the attendance of 14 representatives of the GCC Secretariat-General and Red Crescent societies of Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
The meeting was headed by Abdelrahman bin Mohamed al-Awn, director-general of Kuwait Red Crescent.
QRC was represented by Saleh bin Ali al-Mohannadi, secretary-general; Rashid bin Saad al-Mohannadi, head of the Al Khor branch and director of the Social Development Department; and Dr Fawsi Oussedik, head of International Relations and International Humanitarian Law.
The attendees discussed a number of major humanitarian issues and the most significant aspects of joint humanitarian action among GCC national societies, notably the Syrian crisis. They reviewed the minutes of the first meeting of the permanent working group on the humanitarian situation in Syria, including a set of practical proposals to be collectively adopted by GCC national societies towards any future scenarios.
They also reviewed the media material published on the matter to show the humanitarian role of GCC national societies towards Syrian refugees.
Other agenda items included help for distressed people in Yemen, help for the displaced in Iraq amid deteriorating security conditions, unified GCC positions at regional and international organisations, following up on the Seville Agreement deliberations in the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, international disaster response law guidelines, promotion of humanitarian action perception among GCC countries, field visits and joint training, relevant conferences and workshops, co-ordinated emergency appeal response and restoring family links.
The meetings also led to key recommendations and outcomes.
QRC was assigned the task of organising a field visit for representative of GCC national societies to Lebanon to examine the most urgent needs of Syrian refugees, watch the already working projects, explore the possibility of having a land plot to establish a new joint GCC refugee camp and identify possible mechanisms of co-ordination and co-operation with relevant organisations working in Lebanon.
As a representative of Qatar (the Supreme Council Presidency State for 2015), QRC will co-ordinate with the GCC Secretariat-General when there are any international or regional conferences during 2015 to hold a co-ordination meeting well ahead for unified approaches and positions towards the issues at hand.
GCC national societies will report to the GCC Secretariat-General about their humanitarian assistance to displaced Iraqi people.
The permanent working group of legal experts from GCC national societies on the Seville Agreement amendments will continue working, submit its visions to the next senior official meeting (Doha, April 2015) and study the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent constitutional amendments to outline a consensual approach.
Each GCC national society will nominate a training official to form an academic committee chaired by Dr Fawzi al-Amin, secretary-general of Bahrain Red Crescent, to collect information needed for a comprehensive strategy of developing a humanitarian action diploma or course.
