The Assistant Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Ambassador Haifa Abu Ghazaleh, participated in the opening of the regional workshop "Towards a Regional Action Plan on Legal Affiliation and Identity", which is held in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the General Secretariat of the Council of Arab Interior Ministers.
In her speech, Abu Ghazaleh said that the workshop comes as an important step to complement the efforts of the social sector in the field of child protection and the promotion of gender equality, and is an opportunity to sharpen the resources available at the regional level to take all measures to ensure that every woman has an equal right to grant citizenship to her children and support the right of each A child should have a birth certificate and legal identity papers, especially with the worsening of the humanitarian situation around the world, which made it more difficult for the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
She added that when statistics indicate that approximately 4.2 million people in 79 countries around the world are stateless, we are talking about a humanitarian situation that we must look at, especially since most of them are women and children in refugee and displacement status, which could have alleviated. Its severity in the event that gender equality is achieved in the issue of nationality laws and gives women the right to grant citizenship to their children in times of peace and war.
Ambassador Abu Ghazaleh stressed that bridging the gender gap with regard to nationality-related laws directly supports the achievement of the sustainable development goals in several areas, including education and health, and results in support for family unity and solving the problem of residence permits for children, which helps the cohesion of the family, and supports the arrival of a greater number of people. Children for education and health services, and supports the opportunities for children of citizens to obtain jobs, and helps community belonging and integration, which supports the stability of society and pushes citizens to contribute to the official economy of the state.
She explained that the General Secretariat has been working since 2016 to support this important issue, and from this standpoint the Arab League held a regional expert meeting "Our Children ... Our Future: Belonging and Identity" in cooperation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and in 2017 the "First Arab Conference was held." On good practices and regional opportunities to promote women's rights and equal access to nationality - 18 Arab countries attended.
The conference emphasized the importance of documenting, sharing and strengthening existing efforts in the Arab region in order to expand good practices in the field of promoting women's rights and equality in the field of nationality, studying the challenges facing member states and developing frameworks for solutions.
She added that the Ministerial Conference on “Belonging and Identity” was held on the sidelines of the 37th session of the Arab Women’s Committee, in cooperation with the Ministry of Women, Family, Childhood and the Elderly in the Republic of Tunisia and in coordination with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Our meeting is held today based on the recommendations of the issued statement. On this meeting, in an effort to consider the best ways to support the achievement of gender equality in nationality laws, and to ensure that children are registered and have access to civil documents that guarantee their ability to enjoy their economic, social and cultural rights in accordance with international conventions and covenants such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
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