The Shura Council State of Qatar

HE Speaker of the Shura Council Ahmed bin Abdulla bin Zaid Al Mahmoud said out of the State of Qatar's belief in settling disputes peacefully, the wise vision of HH the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and before him, HH the Father Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani focused on the importance of restoring peaceful relations in the community so everyone can live together in freedom and dignity.

This came during His Excellency's participation in the conference of the Association of Senates, Shura and Equivalent Councils in Africa and the Arab World which began in Rabat, Morocco, on Thursday, and focused on the experiences of national reconciliation which led to political stability, social peace and peace-building.

His Excellency said in compliance with this vision and in line with the human values and the Qatari heritage legacy, Qatar committed to exerting all possible efforts to contribute to achieving security and peace in the region through bringing together parties and achieving reconciliations, since its own stability and security is part of the region's stability and security.

HE Al Mahmoud said Qatar has become the city of reconciliations and a venue for meetings of warring parties in Sudan, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, Yemen and Afghanistan and has achieved many successful settlements due to its credibility, transparency and standing at the same distance from all parties. It also worked on parallel lines to meet relief needs and support early recovery projects, to reconstruct, to push the development process to provide stability and extend a decent life to support the peace process.

His Excellency highlighted Qatar's continuous role in achieving peace in Darfur, Sudan, within the framework of Arab-African ministerial committee on conflict resolution and in close cooperation with the joint mediator of the African Union and the UN.

HE Al Mahmoud said Qatar's efforts has been fruitful with the adoption of the Doha Peace Document in Darfur, which included among other settlement terms, articles on reconciliation and the Darfur-Darfur dialogue in order to end tribal conflicts and mend the social fabric. The goal of the State of Qatar in this context was the immediate cessation of violence to achieve a state of stability, to resolve the issue of power and wealth division, to reform existing social institutions, to support a culture of peace and to alleviate the suffering of victims, HE Speaker of the Shura Council said.

His Excellency said the State of Qatar considered reconciliation this way as part of a comprehensive process to bring about peace to the society that have been suffering for years through three stages which are violation cessation and resolving the conflict by addressing its causes followed by addressing the effects of the conflict.

HE Speaker of Shura Council Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud stressed that national reconciliation in the Arab and African countries requires strong political will from all actors, and also requires an open mind that accepts the other according to the rule that what brings together the sons of one country is much greater than what divide them, adding that the preoccupation of national political forces with each other opens the way for agendas and harmful external interventions.

HE stressed that any successful reconciliation must focus on recognizing the right of the victims and rehabilitating them within the framework of transitional justice, ensuring that their suffering is not repeated, and a clear assignment of responsibilities within a strategic context aimed at moving towards a stage of stability and harmony. But it remains crucial for national reconciliation to take its course, that this reconciliation becomes a permanent culture among all components of society and that this culture replaces exclusion, marginalization and rejecting the other.

HE pointed out that in the framework of the State of Qatar's efforts to contribute to activating the role of parliamentary diplomacy in international peace and security issues, Doha will host from 6 to 10 April the meeting of the 140th session of the General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the meetings related to it.

HE Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud said that the conference held today comes within the framework of the implementation of the work program of the Association of Senates, Shura and Equivalent Councils in Africa and the Arab World, which was ratified at its tenth conference here in Morocco in 2017, and includes topics such as peacebuilding, conflict resolution and transitional justice in Africa and the Arab world.

HE added that the conference coincides with the efforts of reconciliations and dialogues taking place today in the Arab and African region in order to re-establish harmony, as they derive from the need of the region for the means, efforts and mechanisms that bring together the parties and promote the concept of tolerance.

HE stressed that the concepts of tolerance, reconciliation, brotherhood and the call for peace are advocated by all religions and tribal customs and recognized by all wise men, philosophers and sociologists, as it preserves security and achieve coexistence and flourishing civilizations, and in their absence injustice and bloodshed prevail and civilization will be destroyed.

HE also pointed out that the conference also comes within the framework of evaluating the models of national reconciliations that have been made and benefiting from the selection of the most successful means to achieve reconciliation and ensure its sustainability.

HE pointed out that experiences have shown that failure to establish a modern state leads to the collapse of the foundations of the national state and allows tribe and ethnic, sectarian and religious differences to become the basis of belonging to our Arab and African societies. This needs to rehabilitate the national state which must be based on the concept of citizenship, he said, pointing out that this is why the concept of reconciliation occupies a great deal of attention as a desirable method of settling conflicts and internal tensions.

HE thanked His Majesty King Mohammed VI of Morocco and his interest and the great interest of Morocco in reconciliation as important subject for the Arab world and Africa.

HE expressed his thanks to the presidency and the secretariat of the Association of Senates, Shura and Equivalent Councils in Africa and the Arab World and the National Council for Human Rights in Morocco for the kind invitation and good reception and good preparation for the conference.

The conference of the Association of Senates, Shura and Equivalent Councils in Africa and the Arab World opened at the House of Councilors of the Kingdom of Morocco earlier today.

The current meetings, which were opened by Chairman of the House of Councilors in the Kingdom of Morocco Abdel Hakim bin Shammas, Chairman of the Accredited the Association of Senates, Shura and Equivalent Councils in Africa and the Arab World, on the experiences of national reconciliation which led to political stability, and peace-building.

The two-day sessions will discuss a number of important issues on reconciliation from the perspective of transitional justice. The first theme is the comparative experiences of "Arab experiences, African experiences, Latin American experiences" and the second is reconciliation experiences, the experience of Morocco, the experience of Tunisia, the experience of South Africa, the experience of El Salvador" and the third will be the role of parliaments in consolidating reconciliation tracks, in addition, the role of national institutions in the path of reconciliation and guarantees of non-repetition.

The opening of the conference was attended by a number of members of the Shura Council and HE Acting Charge d'Affaires of the Embassy of the State of Qatar in Morocco Khalid bin Mohammed Al Dosari.