The General Secretariat of the Arab League held a two-day meeting for the 42nd session of the Arab Women's Committee at the ministerial level, with the participation of Qatar. Qatar's delegation to the meeting was headed by Director of Family Affairs Department at the Ministry of Social Development and the Family Najat Daham al-Abdullah.
The Arab League said in a statement Tuesday that the meeting addressed several issues on the empowerment of women and the advancement of their status at the Arab level, the most important of which is the preparation for the 67th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), and the launch of the results of the first regional review of the agenda for women's development in the Arab region.
The Arab League added that the session also addressed regional and international co-operation in promoting and empowering women, as well as following up on the implementation of the joint regional initiative with the UN Women's Commission on the economic empowerment of women in the green economy, in addition to women's issues, security, peace, combating terrorism, the Arab Women Mediators Network for peace, and combating violence against women.
The Arab League expressed its keenness to hold meetings of the Arab Women's Committee at the beginning of February of each year, coinciding with Arab Women's Day, which falls on Feb 1, and based on the Arab League's keenness to pay attention to issues of women's rights and empowerment.
On the sidelines of the meeting, the General Secretariat of the Arab League held a virtual preparatory meeting to discuss the draft Arab statement, which will be presented at the 67th session of the United Nations CSW under the title 'Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.'
The Arab League pointed out that holding this preparatory meeting came in co-operation with the regional office of the UN Women Regional Office for the Arab States (ROAS), under the presidency of Iraq (the current chair of the committee) and with the participation of ministers and heads of national mechanisms concerned with women's affairs from 18 Arab countries, with the aim of coming up with an Arab vision for the advancement of Arab women by working to achieve gender equality and empowering women and girls.
For her part, Assistant Secretary General and Head of the Social Affairs Sector at the Arab League Ambassador Haifa Abu Ghazaleh expressed appreciation for the joint Arab effort in enriching the Arab statement issued by the meeting, and paying attention to the status of women's issues in situations such as being in asylum, displacement and under occupation in the context of technology, and women with disabilities, especially visual impairment, as well as adapting to climate change and environmental disasters in the context of digital age.
Ambassador Abu Ghazaleh stressed the importance of linking the issue of gender equality and achieving peace and security in the context of technology, especially in light of the development of a new programme for peace at the international level in preparation for the future summit.
