Qatar has renewed its commitment to continue efforts to strengthen the role of women incorporated in Qatar National Vision 2030 which deal with several issues in term of empowering women to fully participate in all aspects of public life, particularly in decision-making, in addition to increasing their access to professional support.

In a statement delivered before the 68th UN General Assembly’s Second Committee meeting on “Eradication of poverty and other development issues” on Thursday, Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohamed al-Thani, third secretary at Qatar’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, said that Qatar would make all efforts to upgrade women’s skills in order to ensure their participate in all areas “as they are a key pillar of human development in the country”.

Touching on the report of the UN secretary-general on the role of women in development, Sheikh Ahmed said that Qatar had made “significant” progress in improving the situation of women and their participation in public life, by improving literacy levels and school enrolment.

He said that the gap between males and females had already been eliminated, adding that Qatari women were on track to contribute more to the state’s economic activity. 

He said that despite the existence of the legislations that protect Qatari women against discrimination and increase their participation in public life and their achievements in education field, Qatar would continue to attach more support to women’s role in development through legislations targeting the promotion of her status in society.

Sheikh Ahmed said that Qatar had asserted the UN secretary general’s report in which the Second United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty focused on full employment and decent work for all “as an important platform for national action and international co-operation in order that the eradication of poverty remains within post-2015 development plan, which should make use of the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals, and the continued impacts of the global financial and economic crisis, inequality, food insecurity and environmental
degradation”.

He said it was important to give the creation of productive and decent jobs top priority, particularly for young people, and to implement policies of improving agricultural productivity, livelihoods, food security and nutrition in poor rural communities.