HE the Chairperson of the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC), Maryam bint Abdullah al-Attiyah, inaugurated NHRC’s pavilion at Expo 2023 Doha at Al Bidaa Park, in addition to the exhibitions “Human Rights in Islamic Culture” and “Human Rights and Football.”
The pavilion aims to spread awareness of human rights in general, emphasise a better and more sustainable future, and raise awareness of the need to address global challenges such as climate change and environmental degradation.
The inauguration of the pavilion coincides with the activities of Qatari Human Rights Day and the 21st anniversary of the founding of the committee to emphasise the right to enjoy a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
In her speech on the occasion, HE al-Attiyah said the opening of the committees’ pavilion alongside the two exhibitions, and the awareness and educational activities that the committee will organise within the work of Expo 2023 Doha, are in line with the objectives of the exhibition, which cannot be separated in any way from human rights.
Rather, it is at the core of human rights, HE al-Attiyah said noting Doha hosted the World Expo, which was organised for the first time in the Middle East and North Africa region.
She added hosting the event affirms that transforming the desert into green land has become possible, while it previously constituted a major challenge, and it contributes to finding solutions to global challenges related to water, energy and food shortages, and climate change.
She stressed the pavilion, which displays several publications, receives visitors and delegations of varying age groups, including children, women, people with disabilities, and the elderly. It will contribute to spreading the culture of human rights in society, work to consolidate sustainable development, and make young people aware of their rights and duties towards future generations.
HE al-Attiyah pointed to the studies and publications related to the right to the environment that were prepared by the committees’ experts, the most prominent of which is “Protecting the Right to a Healthy Environment in Qatar”. This comes at a time when the world is exposed to many environmental threats and challenges that affect human rights.
The committee also displays an Arabic calligraphy exhibition on “Human Rights in Islamic Culture”, which consists of creative paintings of Arabic calligraphy that include Holy Qur’anic verses and noble Prophetic Hadiths that are consistent with modern human rights principles to reflect Islam’s adoption of human rights principles over 1,400 years ago, to build bridges of co-operation and dialogue between different cultures and civilisations, to search for common human heritage and values and highlighting them, and to confront speeches of intolerance and hatred.
The exhibition has received praise in many European and Arab capitals. It was shown in Madrid, Berlin, Athens and Paris. It was also organised twice at the UN headquarters in Geneva, at the European Union headquarters in Brussels, in Kuwait, and in Tunisia on the sidelines of the Arab Interior Ministries Council (AIMC).
The “Human Rights and Football” exhibition, which is being organised next to the NHRC pavilion, links human rights and humanitarian concepts, football, sustainability, and the rights of vulnerable groups.
The exhibitions’ paintings reflect awareness messages to consolidate the concepts of the right to sport for all, the importance of achieving sustainable development goals, preserving the environment, and deepening friendship between people.
