HE the Speaker of the Shura Council Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid al-Mahmoud has said that choosing Doha as the headquarters of the Office of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Programme on Parliamentary Participation in Preventing and Combating Terrorism is another confirmation of the world's appreciation of Qatar under the leadership of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and his wise policy in all fields, especially in combating terrorism and working to implement the UN Convention against Terrorism and the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and violent extremism conducive to terrorism.

This choice is also considered a global recognition of the great support that His Highness the Amir provides to the United Nations in its initiatives to counter terrorism.

This came in HE al-Mahmoud's speech yesterday at the high-level meeting to unify responses in the fight against terrorism through parliamentary tasks, held via videoconferencing, within the UN Counter-Terrorism Week, during which he called on all parliamentarians in various regions of the world to intensify and co-ordinate their efforts and unite their ranks to eliminate terrorism which threatens everyone and does not differentiate between races and religions.

He said that the UN office's activities will cover all parliaments of the world and work with international and regional parliamentary organisations, starting from Doha as a global centre for supporting and building the capacities of parliamentarians from all over the world and co-ordinating their efforts in combating terrorism.

HE al-Mahmoud gave a presentation of the office's tasks, which focus on enhancing public participation, especially the systematic participation between parliamentarians, local communities and civil society actors, in issues related to terrorism and violent extremism, and strengthening parliamentary cooperation, including co-operation between relevant parliamentary committees at the regional and international levels, sharing knowledge, experiences, good practices and lessons learned, creating formal and informal networking opportunities for parliamentarians around the world on preventing and countering terrorism and violent extremism and providing a platform for coordination between parliamentary assemblies, with a focus on parliamentary initiatives to achieve a world free of terrorism.

The office's tasks include building understanding and raising awareness of issues and political developments related to terrorism and violent extremism among parliamentarians, providing guidance to parliamentarians on ways to facilitate the implementation of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, United Nations General Assembly and Security Council resolutions, and other instruments related to terrorism, providing technical assistance and capacity-building support to parliamentarians on a wide range of their functions and mandates, as appropriate, to prevent and counter terrorism and violent extremism, enhancing understanding of how to develop policies and legislation to prevent and respond to terrorism, in line with human rights and gender responsiveness, facilitating dialogue and cooperation between governments and parliaments on countering terrorism and addressing conditions conducive to terrorism, producing normative work, evidence-based tools, research and resources, compiling good practices and analyses for the use of parliamentarians, and increasing the participation of women and youth parliamentarians in efforts to suppress terrorism and violent extremism.

HE al-Mahmoud wishing the meeting success in conveying its message to humanity, emphasising that terrorism is a dangerous scourge that threatens lives and facilities and constitutes a real obstacle that threatens the sustainable development of many countries and at the same time represents a real threat to global peace and security.

The high-level meeting was attended by the UN Under-Secretary-General for Counter-Terrorism, the President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, and a number of parliamentarians and parliamentarians from different regions of the world, who all welcomed the establishment of the office in Doha and affirmed its importance in co-ordinating parliamentary action to combat terrorism and violent extremism, and praised the role and presidency of the Shura Council in Qatar for hosting the office and supporting it to achieve its goals.