Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi underlined that the GCC countries safeguard human rights and guarantee all basic rights, including equality and non-discrimination, in implementation of the supreme directives of Their Majesties and Highnesses the leaders of the GCC countries, and in affirmation of what was stated in the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of Forms of Racial Discrimination, and other treaties and conventions to which the GCC states have joined.
The GCC Secretary-General made the statement on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination which is observed annually on March 21. The 2023 theme of the International Day focuses on the urgency of combatting racism and racial discrimination, 75 years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
Albudaiwi underlined that the GCC countries are committed to eliminating all forms of racial discrimination and criminalizing its acts, in accordance with the legislation, laws, procedures and measures adopted by the GCC countries.
He indicated that the world today still suffers from the existence of campaigns of racism, discrimination and hatred, and related intolerance that has created challenges for the international community to find solutions to combat racism in all its forms and places.
He emphasised that the GCC countries have been working to spread and promote a culture of tolerance, respect for human rights, justice, equality, and rejection of racism, in application of the tolerant Islamic Sharia which prohibits discrimination in all its forms.
He recalled what was stated in the GCC Human Rights Declaration adopted on December 9, 2014, which emphasised the principles of equality and non-discrimination in any form in more than one article.
In conclusion of his statement, the GCC Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi stressed the importance of uniting efforts aimed at building and developing societies by promoting a culture of tolerance, moderation and acceptance of the other, and emphasising the principle of peaceful coexistence that has been applied and enshrined by the GCC states; calling on the international community to condemn discourses that promote ideas based on racial superiority or hatred, or that incite racism and discrimination.