Vienna / Information Office / July 13  

The State of Qatar has confirmed that the global program to implement the Doha Declaration issued by the Thirteenth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in 2015, has proven its effectiveness and achieved the highest possible outcome in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations, as the outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) did not prevent the Program from continuing its work.

This came in a speech of the State of Qatar, delivered by HE the Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the Federal Republic of Austria and the permanent representative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations and international organizations in Vienna Sultan bin Salmeen Al Mansouri, via video conference, during the meeting of the United Nations Office On Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna on the activities of the Global Program under the slogan "Transforming Policies into Actions".

His Excellency said that the member states of the United Nations unanimously adopted the Doha Declaration a few months before the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the Doha Declaration had its forward-looking vision in support of this plan and its emphasis on seeking to implement comprehensive policies and programs that promote socio-economic development and provide support to other member states in their endeavors to this end.

His Excellency pointed out, during the meeting that was attended by a number of deputy ministers and officials from different countries, comprising the Deputy Minister of Justice and Public Security of the Republic of El Salvador, the Deputy Minister of Education, Science and Technology of the Republic of El Salvador, the Deputy Minister of Public Security of the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Peru and the judge of the Court of Appeal in Porto and the President of the European Association of judges, that the Doha Declaration was built on the close interdependence and mutual impact of sustainable development and the rule of law. Its motto was to integrate crime prevention and criminal justice into the broader United Nations agenda in order to address social and economic challenges, strengthen the rule of law at the national and international levels.

His Excellency pointed out that the implementation of the United Nations sustainable development agenda in 2016 began during the same year of the launch of the Doha Declaration Global Program which is funded by the State of Qatar, the largest funding program provided by one country in the history of the UN Office. This synchronization confirms the foresight of the political leadership of the State of Qatar and its belief in global solidarity when it decided to transform the Doha Declaration and the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development into action programs for community prosperity and the promotion of world peace.

His Excellency reviewed the achievements of the Global Program during the past five years, and said that the sustainable development plan pledged to ensure no one will be left behind, and the global program to implement the Doha Declaration achieved this goal in a practical way when it reached about two million people from 192 countries, and more than 55 thousand people benefited from more than 500 activities of support and capacity building activities, most of them are from developing countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa, and the program still has time to achieve more goals.

His Excellency added that although the global program to implement the Doha Declaration achieved many goals contained in SDG 16, which falls within the mandate of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, but the seventeen goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 169 goals are integrated and indivisible goals with aim to achieving a balance between the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, the social and the environmental dimensions, and therefore the global program has comprehensively contributed to the implementation of all the goals of the sustainable development plan.

Al Mansouri affirmed, at the end of his speech, the commitment of the State of Qatar to continue working with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to build on the achievements of the global program to implement the Doha Declaration and continue to contribute to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development goals at all levels.

His Excellency called on other countries to work with a shared responsibility spirit and support the activities and programs of the Office to achieve goals of the aforementioned agenda for the sake of rule of law, justice, equality, tolerance, openness and social inclusion for all, and to refrain from enacting and implementing any unilateral economic, financial or commercial measures that are inconsistent with international law and the Charter of United Nations and hinder the full economic and social development of countries.