Qatar Keen to Engage Young People in All Development Policies

New York, July 26 (QNA) - The State of Qatar is keen to engage young people in all development policies that it pursues and make them a main supply that the State relies on to face present and future challenges, and achieve sustainable development. This is stemming from its belief that young people are the leaders of tomorrow, the future of the country and constitute the backbone for building a bright future for coming generations.
This came in a speech given by HE Minister of State for International Cooperation Dr Khalid bin Mohammad Al Attiyah, who led the Qatari delegation to the High-level Meeting of the UN General Assembly on Youth, at the UN headquarters.
The State of Qatar, he said, believes that young people are an essential component of every society that must be taken into account in order to build a promising future that affords each member of the community the opportunity to live in dignity and the enjoyment of fundamental rights, including human rights and the right to education, health and freedom of expression. In this respect, the State of Qatar , through its various youth, sport, cultural and social institutions, attaches importance to the International Year of the Youth in that it integrated the theme of International Year of the Youth (dialogue and understanding) among its priority.
HE the Minister said that Qatar supported initiatives for cooperation in the middle East and North Africa region to develop and implement strategies that provides decent and productive work for the youth through the Silatek Foundation, which aims to address the problems of unemployment in the middle East and North Africa region through the creation of jobs for young people, linking them to the labor market and the adoption of programs aimed at the rehabilitation and training of young people and supporting the owners of small and medium enterprises.
There is no doubt that the declaration of 2011 by the United Nations as the international year of the Youth, and the election of the theme of dialogue and understanding for the crux of discussions, which came on the basis of the importance of international principles that aim at spreading that ideals of peace and respect for human rights and the spirit of solidarity among different peoples regardless of their ethnic, national, cultural or religious affiliations, will enable young people to play a pivotal role in the rapprochement between cultures and religions, the rejection of stereotypes and the reinforcement of the culture of understanding and manual respect among peoples, Al Attiyah said