UAE attends Srebrenica Genocide day ceremony
The UAE's participation reaffirmed its recognition of the crimes committed in Srebrenica as genocide and served as a powerful reminder of the atrocities no community should ever face.
The UAE underscored its unwavering commitment to honouring the memory of the victims and to supporting survivors and their families, while firmly rejecting any attempts to deny, distort, or misrepresent historical facts.
The commemoration marked a day of reflection in memory of the 8,372 innocent lives lost in the 1995 genocide.
It also reinforced the UAE's dedication to promoting the values of tolerance, coexistence, and mutual respect, values that remain central to its foreign policy.
Through its participation, the UAE emphasised the urgent need to confront hatred in all its forms and reiterated its belief that every individual, regardless of race, religion, or nationality, has the right to live in peace, safety, and dignity, both within their communities and across the globe.
The UAE delegation was led by Reem Bint Ebrahim Al Hashimy, Minister of State for International Cooperation, and Ahmed Al Shamsi, UAE Consul-General to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Al Hashimy participated in the event following an invitation addressed to President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Recently, Shaikh Al Mahfouz Bin Bayyah, Secretary-General of the Abu Dhabi Forum for Peace participated in the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide, organised by the United Nations at its headquarters in New York, with wide participation from UN and international actors in the field of human rights and the protection of minorities.
In a speech he delivered during the dialogue sessions accompanying the celebration, the Secretary-General said that the Emirati model, in building a society of tolerance and love through effective legal, cultural, and educational frameworks, has today become a subject of international praise, reviewing those laws that promote the values of justice and equality and combat hatred.
WAM
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Zawya
2 hours ago
- Zawya
Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)'s Gatete sets tone at High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) 2025 with focus on finance and data gaps
At the opening of the 2025 High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), Claver Gatete, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), called for urgent action to bridge global financing gaps and support innovation systems that work for all. 'Digital tools and mission-driven science can accelerate SDGs delivery, but only if systems are inclusive and backed by real financing at scale,' he said, moderating a high-level Townhall session on SDGs implementation as part of ECA's coordinating role among the UN Regional Commissions. The session, titled Unlocking the Means of Implementation: Finance, Science, Technology and Innovation for the SDGs, focused on how to move from global commitments to tangible solutions. It brought together leaders from public and private sectors to examine how capital flows, technology, and policy can better support sustainable development. With participation from Sanda Ojiambo, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact; Robbert Dijkgraaf, President-Elect of the International Science Council; and Robert Kirkpatrick, Chairman of the Board of the United Cities Foundation, the conversation highlighted the urgency of scaling investment, adopting alternative financing models, and building inclusive systems. Together, the panel stressed the importance of translating innovation into real-world results, especially across Africa and other regions facing deep development disparities. Speaking at another session on poverty eradication, Mr Gatete highlighted the need to ground policy and investment in sharper, more integrated data systems. 'We can't end poverty if we can't measure it accurately,' he said at the event hosted by the Permanent Mission of Uruguay to the UN, UNDP, the Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network (MPPN), and other partners. 'It's time to shift from measuring what's convenient to measuring what matters.' Mr Gatete pointed to ECA's development of a prototype Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) dashboard for African countries. The platform links spatial poverty data with climate vulnerability, migration flows, peace and security trends, and subnational budget execution, providing governments with a more complete picture of where to direct resources and improve social protection. As the forum continues, Mr Gatete and ECA are keeping Africa's priorities on the table, advocating for fairer finance, smarter tools, and a more inclusive path to 2030. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
Gulf Today
6 hours ago
- Gulf Today
It's beyond time to end the scandal of IPP
It comes to something when a senior member of a recent government – the former justice secretary, no less – describes actions by the state that were part of his remit as 'overbearing, unfair and almost totalitarian'. Yet this is how Alex Chalk KC, who held that office for 14 months in the government of Rishi Sunak, describes imprisonment for public protection (IPP) orders – which can keep someone in prison indefinitely after conviction for a relatively minor crime. Ousted from government by his party's defeat at the last election, and also from his parliamentary seat, Mr Chalk has returned to his legal practice. It is from this perch that he is now asking his successor, Shabana Mahmood, to consider new proposals — from the Howard League and a former lord chief justice, Lord Thomas — with a view to righting this now longstanding wrong, according to The Independent. At The Independent, we make no apology for returning once again to the iniquity of IPP orders that go against so much of what should constitute any civilised judicial system. Two features stand out. There is the glaring disproportionality in so many cases between the crime and the punishment, with some prisoners having served almost 20 years (and still counting) for offences such as robbing someone of their mobile phone or laptop. This is not, by the way, to diminish such crimes, but to point up the disparity between the standard tariff for such a conviction and the actual time served by many of those still subject to IPP orders. The other feature is the cruelty of imposing a sentence that has no end, which has been described by the UN as psychological torture. With no prospect of a release date, more than 90 such prisoners have taken their own lives. Altogether, more than 2,500 are still languishing in jail on IPPs. This is in spite of these indefinite prison terms having been abolished in 2012, just seven years after they were introduced. The clear mistake then was not to have made the abolition retrospective. It applied only to new convictions, not to those already in jail, leaving the glaring injustice that one day could make a difference between someone left to serve what could become a lifetime sentence and someone convicted of a similar crime with a clear idea of the timetable for release or parole. The failure to make abolition of IPP orders retrospective has had consequences of its own. At least some of those still not released are now so damaged by their experience and will be so hard to rehabilitate that they could indeed present a danger to society if they were released. This is the very opposite of what a penal system should set out to achieve and amounts, in Mr Chalk's words, to nothing less than a failure on the part of the state. At which point, there is an obvious and not unreasonable question for the former justice secretary to answer. If the injustices and perverse effects of IPP orders were so apparent when he came to office — as they were — why did he not do something about it? Why did he not condemn the policy in the same terms as he is doing now and make the changes he is demanding be made by his successor? Part of his answer is that he did do something. He reduced from 10 to three the number of years that a released IPP prisoner was on licence and so subject to recall. That is not nothing, but it was nothing like enough. Two small pleas might also be made on his behalf in mitigation. As he says, there was 'not a single vote' in even the change in the licence period that he made, because of the general lack of public sympathy for prisoners. As he does not say — but is a sentiment with which the current government could well concur — a year can be too short a time in UK politics when it comes to getting anything done. The ponderous nature of the legislative process can be a minus as well as a plus. On the other hand, the size of the Labour government's majority and the years it still has to run mean it has time on its side.
Filipino Times
a day ago
- Filipino Times
Cambodia marks World Heritage recognition of Khmer Rouge sites
Three former Khmer Rouge sites in Cambodia have been added to the UNESCO World Heritage List, marking the country's first modern-era conflict-related inscription. The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Choeung Ek Genocide Centre in Phnom Penh, and M-13 prison in Kampong Chhnang province were inscribed by the United Nations cultural agency on Friday during the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris. The listing coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Khmer Rouge's rise to power. From 1975 to 1979, the regime was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people through starvation, torture, and executions. Prime Minister Hun Manet welcomed the designation and called for nationwide drum-beating ceremonies on Sunday to commemorate the occasion. 'May this inscription serve as a lasting reminder that peace must always be defended. From the darkest chapters of history, we can draw strength to build a better future for humanity,' he said in a televised message. Tuol Sleng, a former high school turned prison known as S-21, held around 15,000 detainees, most of whom were later executed. Choeung Ek was among the regime's most notorious killing fields. M-13 served as an earlier detention center operated by the Khmer Rouge before it seized power. Cambodia's Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts said this is the country's first World Heritage nomination linked to recent history and one of the first globally tied to modern conflict.
