By Anwar Elshamy

Al-Mohamedi during the press conference held at the Four Seasons hotel yesterday

Qatar will soon get its first woman judge, according to an official at the National Human Rights Committee.
Fahad al-Mohamedi, deputy director of the Legal Affairs Department at the NHRC, said that there was a government plan to appoint the first woman judge in Qatar soon, a move he said, comes as part of the commitment of the country’s leadership to enhance roles for women.
“The NHRC is giving special attention to women’s issues and rights. We regard them as one of the categories who deserve special care,” al-Mohamedi, said addressing a press conference following the closing session the Arab-European Dialogue on Human Rights. The three-day session discussed ways to protect women’s rights in the Arab world and Europe.
Al-Mohamedi also revealed that Dr Hessa al-Silaiti had  recently been appointed as an assistant judge.  
To a question on the difficulties that might face those willing to set up women’s associations, the official denied that the NHRC had received any pleas from women to facilitate the procedures required for forming such entities. 
“There is a law regulating such procedures. But the Committee will surely help women in case women sought help. I think the road is open before women, but they need to take the initiative,” he added.
Muhyieddeen Touq, a commissioner general of the Jordan’s National Centre for Human Rights, admitted that women’s representation in Arab countries’ judiciary system was low, and said the participating delegates had urged for boosting women’s numbers in the judiciary and legislative systems.
The Arab European Human Rights Dialogue (AEHRD) was established in 2005 by the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) in cooperation with the National Centre for Human Rights in Jordan. It is a process designed to cultivate dynamic dialogue and interaction among national human rights institutions to promote human rights.
Muayad Mehyar, the AEHRD’s director, hailed the meeting as “success,” and said the creation of a working group on women’s rights and gender equality, which will be sponsored by the Qatar’s NHRC, was one of the achievements made during the meeting.
In the final statement at the meeting, the participants urged lifting of reservations to the Convention on  Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) as well as ratifying the convention’s optional protocol.
They maintained that women’s political participation should be made a fundamental pre-requisite for gender equality and democracy.
The participants also called on the national human rights institutions in the Euro-Arab region to “ensure a minimum of 50% representation of women in their respective boards.”
They also sought independent investigation of religious sources to advocate the full participation of women in all spheres of life, public, political, economic, social and cultural.
The next meeting will be held in Berlin, Germany.