The Arab League General Secretariat is scheduled to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Global Council for Tolerance and Peace next Tuesday.
The MoU aims at boosting cooperation, working on spreading the values of tolerance and acceptance, countering extremism and intolerance and combating racial discrimination and hate speech.
Director of the Department of Dialogue of Civilizations at the Arab League pointed out that both sides have agreed to implement joint projects and programs related to issues of common interest.
Among these projects and programs are organizing conferences, forums, workshops and dialogue panels, pushing forward the involvement of youth and civil society organizations in joint activities, coordinating mutual visits among officials from both sides and encouraging mutual benefit from the bilateral experiences, expertise and studies.
In press statements on Thursday, the official said that the Malta-based Global Council for Tolerance and Peace is considered one of the latest global organizations as it was established in 2017.
Its main objectives are to spread the values of tolerance and promote a culture of peace.
The Council is headed by Ahmed bin Mohammed al-Jarwan, former head of the Arab Parliament.
On the other hand, the Permanent Committee for Administrative and Financial Affairs at the Arab League held Thursday its 96th session at the General Secretariat’s headquarters.
The session was chaired by Hussain bin Shuwaish al-Shuwaish, assistant undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance for International Financial Affairs in Saudi Arabia, and attended by Arab senior officials in the administrative and financial affairs, Ambassador Abdullah Sorour al-Mutairi, assistant secretary-general for administrative and financial affairs at the AL and Ambassador Qais al-Azzawi, assistant secretary-general for financial control at the AL.
The Committee discussed several topics over the past two days, mainly the General Secretariat’s 2020 budget and its financial position, Shuwaish said.
The issue of some countries’ arrears and the need to pay them was also discussed, in addition to the approval of the extension to heads of four missions of the AL in Paris, Washington, Addis Ababa and Nairobi.
An Arab diplomatic source said the Committee has made several recommendations, including urging Arab countries to expedite the payment of their contributions to the AL’s budget and arrears.
The source pointed out that there is a marked improvement in this regard as some countries have paid some arrears from 2018’s budget.
He affirmed that the Committee has prepared a report on its work outcomes and recommendations and submitted it to the AL’s session no.152 at the level of Arab foreign ministers, which will be held in September, to consider their adoption.
