The Gulf Research Center Foundation participated in the Meeting of the President of the United Nations General Assembly, His Excellency Mr. Abdulla Shahid, with civil society organizations on June 15, 2022, in the United Nations Office in Geneva. The meeting was held at the request of the President of the General Assembly, at the margins of the high-level commemorative event on the occasion of the 50th Session of the Human Rights Council. Over 150 NGOs registered for this exclusive meeting, where Mr. Shahid shared his vision and priorities of his “Presidency of Hope,” and emphasized importance of giving youth, women and civil society a greater voice in multilateralism.
The Gulf Research Center Foundation, in its statement written by researcher Amnah Mosly and registered with the United Nations Office at Geneva, emphasized the importance of the Gulf region as a vital part of the world, and explained its mission to promote knowledge for all, through research, conferences, workshops, and dialogue. The statement also highlighted some of the orgnanisation’s projects, one of which focused on promoting deeper relations between the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and the European Union, and another of which established a regional security process in West Asia and the Arabian Peninsula. The statement underlined the objective of the Gulf Research Center Foundation to actively promote the creation and preservation of peace, security, stability, and sustainable development in the Gulf region and all over the world.
In his address to members of civil society organizations, Mr. Shahid highlighted the importance of their work in multilateralism. Having in mind that civil society organizations still remained marginalized in the multilateral space, his presidency was focused on giving them a greater voice. Multilateralism needed to be more effective and to work for and with the people. The work of the United Nations could not deliver without the effective participation of civil society.
The President of the United Nations General Assembly underscored that his presidency was built on the message of hope. After two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was time to build a better tomorrow. Today there were 1.8 billion youth in the world. This youth would be in charge of the world tomorrow; however, they did not believe in the world of tomorrow. Youth continued to lose hope in multilateralism. They did not believe in multilateralism and in the peaceful settlements of war. That was why the international community needed to act now. The United Nations needed to walk the talk. It needed to be the goal setter as well as the practitioner. Mr. Shahid had initiated the Hope Fellowship to promote youth engagement in multilateralism and support the next generation of diplomats, particularly from underrepresented countries at the United Nations. Under this fellowship, he had employed eight young individuals from underrepresented states to work in his office. His goal was to ensure that these young women and men understood how the United Nations worked, and also how it failed, so that one day, when these individuals became leaders of their countries, they would have learned the processes.
Mr. Shahid also regretted the walls of nationalism that still had to be torn down. The COVID-19 pandemic had shown humanity at its best and humanity at its worst. It had highlighted that while only one third of Africans had been vaccinated, Europeans were receiving their third jab. The President reminded that sustainable development, climate change and pandemics had no boundaries. No one was safe until everyone was safe. Small island nations were losing their lands, but typhoons and storms were raging everywhere. Everyone was affected. This was why all countries needed to act together. This was what the pandemic had demonstrated.
Finally, Mr. Shahid reminded representatives of civil society organizations that the United Nations had been built on three pillars: 1) peace and security: 2) development; and 3) human rights. Unfortunately, human rights had been let down, in spite of the fact that World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna in 1993 had tried to mainstream human rights. World leaders needed to make sure that human rights were taken into consideration in everything they did. This included the rights of women. Mr. Shahid found it unacceptable that out of 76 Presidents of the General Assembly, only four had been women. This was why, during his presidency, he had created a platform to promote the voices of women heads of state and government. The platform, entitled Delivering for Equality, intended to mainstream gender equality in all discussions, mandated events and other high-level events.
Mr. Abdulla Shahid is the 76th President of the UNGA, and widely recognized as an exceptional politician and a seasoned diplomat, with a long and distinguished career serving in both the Government and legislature of Maldives. A staunch advocate for gender equality, Mr. Shahid also holds a distinct place as an advocate for a rights-based approach to climate change, and played an instrumental in Human Rights Council Resolution 7/23.
