QRC Participates in Fourth GCC Red Crescent Meeting in Riyadh

Doha, March 15 (QNA) - As part of its humanitarian diplomacy efforts and active humanitarian role in the global arena, Qatar Red Crescent (QRC) has participated in a series of important coordination meetings at the Secretariat-General of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with attendance from Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and UAE, as well as representatives of the Secretariat-General. Dr Fawzi Oussedik, Director of QRC International Relations and International Humanitarian Law, presided over the fourth meeting of the Permanent Working Group on Following up the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement Deliberations on the Seville Agreement (in full the 'Agreement on the Organization of the International Activities of the Components of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement'). The purpose of the meeting was to follow up on the decisions of the tenth meeting of the GCC Red Crescent Presidents held in Kuwait in May 2014 on the Seville Agreement. These decisions involved forming a permanent working group comprising legal experts from GCC Red Crescent Societies to undertake the Seville Agreement discussions and adopt a new consensual position for all GCC countries. Dr Oussedik was selected as a chairman of the working group, which involved as members Dr. Abdul-Karim bin Si Ali and Mr. Mohamed Abdul-Karim Al-Raheel from UAE Red Crescent, Dr Fawzi Abdullah Al-Amin from Bahrain Red Crescent, Dr Moteb Saleh Al-Eshewi from Saudi Arabian Red Crescent, Ms. Zahra Adnan Lafi Al-Hassoun from QRC, and Dr Mosaed bin Rashid Al-Antari from Kuwait Red Crescent. The working group further discussed the paper highlighting the problematic provisions of the Seville Agreement, as well as the proposed mechanism to formulate a unified approach to how GCC Red Crescent societies would contribute their input into the amendment process. The paper will be submitted to the preliminary executive meeting for the 11th meeting of GCC Red Crescent presidents, to be held in Qatar, April 2015, for consideration. The proposed mechanism to formulate a unified approach to how GCC Red Crescent societies would be drafted for the representative council meeting on the Seville Agreement will be submitted to the preliminary executive meeting for examination. A workshop was proposed to be held during the Seville Agreement meetings in Geneva, December 2015. Moreover, the working group reviewed the paper developed by Dr. Oussedik about the main topics to be amended in the following items of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) statute: electoral reforms, integrity and compliance reforms, governance structures, and other issues (e.g., the Russian language). The working group recommended Dr Abdul-Karim bin Si Ali, International Relations Advisor, UAE Red Crescent, and Dr Fawzi Abdullah Al-Amin, Secretary-General of Bahrain Red Crescent, were assigned to redraft the first item of the paper (electoral reforms) in Arabic and English. The new version will be submitted to the Secretariat-General no later than 19 March 2015. Dr Oussedik will have the item translated into French no later than 2 April 2015. The Secretariat-General will submit the Arabic paper to the preliminary executive meeting for consideration. Drafted within the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement in 1997, the Seville Agreement provides a framework for effective cooperation and partnership between members of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, specifying which organization within the Movement would take the lead in certain field operations. In 2005, the agreement was strengthened by the adoption of a set of "supplementary measures." These supplementary measures were designed to enhance the implementation of the agreement with steps to clarify the respective roles of the 'lead agency' and the host National Society. (QNA)