Reshaping the post-COVID-19 world from European multilevel governance and decentralized decision-making

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Reshaping the post-COVID-19 world from European multilevel governance and decentralized decision-making

By Bernat Solé i Barril, Minister for Foreign Action, Institutional Relations and Transparency at the Government of Catalonia.

Since its global outbreak in March, and almost without prior notice, COVID-19 paved the way for uncertainty. The crisis generated by the pandemic made constant change common, by transforming the way we live and work and creating countless effects from the near-collapse of healthcare systems to unemployment, inequality and growing public debt.

In such a context, citizens tend to turn their eyes to governments in search of solutions. But this logic reaction becomes particularly challenging in Europe, where multilevel governance prevails and multiple authorities exist at the local, regional, national, European and global levels.

Facing this crossroads, some governments choose to isolate themselves, as if today’s multipolar world was conformed of atomic entities left unaffected by decisions at the international level.  Quite the opposite. Troubling times teach us the need to move from unilaterality to common action to place citizens regardless of their age, gender, origin and economic situation at the centre of our policies.

The Government of Catalonia has always stressed the urgency to act in this direction. Committed to multilateralism and unambiguously pro-European, Catalonia has invariably pushed for the idea that action beyond the traditional local and national spheres is essential, fostering the presence of stateless nations, regions and cities in decentralized decision-making.

Bernat Solé i Barril, Minister for Foreign Action, Institutional Relations and Transparency at the Government of Catalonia.

In this sense, while EU leaders approved a new recovery plan for Europe (Next Generation EU) and a new Multiannual Financial Framework for 2021-2027, amounting to a total of €1.82 trillion, national governments adopted a series of emergency measures to counter the pandemic’s impact, including loans, tax relief and cash grants. But what about regions?

The past 21 of July, the Government of Catalonia approved an Economic Reactivation and Social Protection Plan entrenched in the long-term goals of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as well as the European Green Deal and the Digital Europe program.

The plan contains 20 projects and 145 actions that give an effective and transversal response to the COVID-19 crisis, aiming at reinforcing the region’s welfare state and productive capacity, reducing its heightened social inequalities and accelerating the transition to a more digital, sustainable and resilient economy.

Amounting to a total of 31.765 M€, the plan mainly comprises immediate measures to mitigate the crisis’ effects, such as emergency plans to protect employment and innovation in the health sector, further grants to cover the basic needs of the most vulnerable, and a digital education plan to make citizens digitally literate. But there’s more – it also contains long-term strategical actions, pointing towards a thorough transformation of the agri-food industry or achieving climate neutrality and sustainable mobility.

For instance, transparency and communication are at the plan’s core. During lockdowns, our Government held more than 50 press conferences to inform the population of new infections and restrictive measures, while a specific portal within its Open Government website included 37 sets of open data on unemployment benefits, emergency contracts, waste generation and the use of public transport.

And the efforts did not stop here. We also stressed the importance of sharing experiences and cooperating with equivalent actors, agreeing with various European regions in the common will to overcome the COVID-19 crisis from regional positions and defend the role of regions in managing EU funds.

This finally led us to establish a platform of 14 regions (so far) for the exchange of good practices, initiatives and projects as well as to adopt common ideological stances in front of national governments, the European Commission, the Committee of the Regions or other networks at the European level.

Only five months ago, COVID-19 wiped out the world we knew and pushed us to an uncertain reality. But it is now up to all of us to reshape this uncertainty through both short and long-term strategic actions within all layers of European multilevel governance that examine the mistakes of the past to make our system more sustainable and resilient to the disruptions of the post-COVID-19 future.

OPCW Executive Council Chairmanship in Pandemic Times

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OPCW Executive Council Chairmanship in Pandemic Times

The Ambassador of El Salvador, H.E. Mr. Agustin Vasquez Gomez.

H.E. Mr. Agustín Vásquez Gómez, Ambassador of the Republic of El Salvador, assumed the Chairmanship of the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on 12 May 2020 for a term of one year, facing in the middle of the pandemic, as different multilateral organizations have done around the world, the challenge of continuing to carry out their work effectively by keeping the health and safety of all participants from the States Parties, as well as the members of the OPCW staff, as a high priority.  

Recognizing the main responsibility ahead, the Chairperson communicated the States Parties that “the conditions set worldwide and in the host country to prevent the spread of the virus will require creative and innovative approaches and practices, in order to fulfill as much as possible the mandates delegated by the Convention and by the Conference of States Parties to the Executive Council”.

Coordination among the Director General, the Bureau members representing each of the regional groups and the Chairperson, has been a paramount for achieving success on procedural matters. In many respects, the Organization was not prepared to manage a scenario whereby a safety distance has to be observed among participants, many thematic and substantive consultations have to be developed through virtual means and six languages live streaming have to be ensured, among others.

Along with a very professional Technical Secretariat team, planning started considering all available options and keeping ahead, as supreme aim, three main premises: first, health and safety of all participants have to be observed at all times, second, all measures adopted and recommend by the host country authorities must be fulfilled and third, either modality to be proposed must comply with the letter of the Convention and the rules of procedure of the Executive Council, leaving no space for interpretation.

To compress all of the above in one efficient formula ahead, a great number of consultations were developed, not just internally with the different divisions of the Technical Secretariat, but also with all States Parties through the valuable support of the Bureau members, in order to ensure full transparency of the process and that all participants would be talking and understanding the same language.

Understanding the complexity of the pandemic context but also the nature of the topics to be discussed at the Executive Council level, the Chairperson encouraged all States Parties to put in practice the following working principles: a permanent search for consensus, keeping objectivity based on the letter of the Convention and the decisions of the policy-making organs, as well as a genuine effort to address all issues with full transparency and good faith, having mutual respect, and overcoming the divergence of views through dialogue, common understanding and a collective quest for reasonable and consistent solutions, in line with the object and purpose of the Convention.

The 94th session of the Executive Council was held from 7 to 9 July 2020. The modality and measures adopted in view of the pandemic demonstrated that the right decision was taken. Nevertheless, aware that there is always room for improvement, the Bureau members along with the Director General, held afterwards an assessment meeting of the different activities carried out before and during the 94th EC session. A number of lessons learned and good practices were identified, which undoubtedly will be a worth source of knowledge and experience in the future. 

While preparing this article in early September, Ambassador Vásquez Gómez was already conducting consultations in view of the 95th session of the Executive Council to be held during the first week of October 2020. Unfortunately, the conditions related to the pandemic have not fully improved to consider holding the meeting under normal circumstances. However, there is a previous experience that constitutes a safe path to follow in view of preparing the States Parties encounter and accomplishing the delicates tasks of such important body within the Organization.

The world is changing and so are we. Many things in our daily life must adapt to new conditions. This is not the first global challenge in history but it is probably the one that has affected the life we knew the most simultaneously and globally. Having had this experience in the Chairmanship of the OPCW Executive Council, the 2020 – 2021 Executive Council Chairperson can conclude that every challenge in life is an opportunity to build new horizons, improving the most our personal and collective prospects. Together as world citizens, we will overcome the pandemic, renewed and strengthened.

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Photography by Naldo Peverelli for Diplomat Magazine.

Cuba developing Covid-19 vaccine

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Cuba developing Covid-19 vaccine

Cuba is the single country in the Caribbean and Latin America region recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for the development of an possibly effective vaccine against the Covid-19 virus.

There are more than 200 candidates on trial for a vaccine, however, merely 30 countries, including Cuba, have been authorized by the WHO to go into the second phase with clinical trials.

The vaccine is being developed by the Finlay de Vacunas Institute. The vaccine has already been administered to the institute’s director and vice-director. In the space of three months, Cuba has succeeded in developing a vaccine, despite the brutal economic embargo under which it is subjected.

The name for the vaccine is Soberana (Finlay-FR-1). The name is based upon two foundations of the Cuban Revolution, namely sovereignty and solidarity. “By this we want to make it clear to the world that Cuba has the fortitude and reason to sustain its revolution and that, despite the economic embargoes, the country shall not surrender.” said one of the doctors working in the process.

Cuba has a very long tradition of excellent health care. As early as 1959, Commander Fidel Castro decided to make education and health more efficient and effective. In addition, Cuba has already developed a number of vaccines against tropical diseases. Therefore the country has expertise in virology, biology and diseases globally. 

Cuba’s top health care is not self-evident. Scientific research costs time and money. Cuba suffers under an economic embargo that has lasted for more than 50 years. A year after the Cuban Revolution in 1959, as many as 50% of Cuban doctors left the country. At that time, Cuba had to ask itself some existential questions and decided to devote its limited and scarce economic resources in mass  education and health care.

More than 40% of GDP goes to the fields of education and health care. In 1959 there were only three universities in Cuba. Thirty per cent of the population was illiterate. Nowadays there is no illiteracy in Cuba and universities have been established in almost all provinces. Between 30% and 40% of the Cuban population have a master’s degree from a university.

Their Faculty of Medicine moreover provides scholarships to students from other Latin American countries. There are students arriving from all over the world to study medicine in Cuba. In fact, every year, Cuba gives ten or so scholarships to students from poor neighbourhoods in the USA. 

For further information:
https://www.finlay.edu.cu

Visited by more than 15,000 – Embassy Festival is a 2020 success history

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Visited by more than 15,000 – Embassy Festival is a 2020 success history

The Mayor of The Hague, The Honorable Jan van Zanen.

Bringing cultures together from all over the world and offering an experience that inspires and connects. That’s the mission of the Embassy Festival. The eighth edition couldn’t take place at the Lange Voorhout this year due to the Coronavirus, so an online edition was put together.

More than 15.000 people checked in via the festival website and hundreds of people bought an Embassy Festival Wine and/or Surprise Box. Many visited the Embassy Festival office at the Noordeinde in The Hague to pick them up and just as many were sent to addresses all over the Netherlands. By doing this, the always enticing International Market was brought to the homes of the festival visitors.

To complete the experience, a broad selection of music, cooking workshops, interviews with ambassadors, dance videos and more were published on the Embassy Festival website.
Embassy Festival Surprise Box, Wine Box and Recipe Booklet

Liquorice from Finland, desert salt from Chile, wine from Azerbaijan and more than 70 other products were selected with the participating embassies, to create a culinary round-the-world experience.

Five products from five different countries were placed in an Embassy Festival Surprise Box, together with a recipe booklet. The recipe booklet with traditional dishes from all over the world was made in cooperation with the participating embassies. “I was waiting by the door for my box and was so surprised when I opened it. I’ve been going to the Embassy Festival for years and love what they’ve created this year. My daughters want to make braided bread from Moldovia and my husbands is trying to learn Korean with one of the online videos.”, wrote online visitor Gwen Cooper.
Embassy Festival, online reactions.
Online programme

During previous editions at the Lange Voorhout, visitors would have the opportunity to see a diverse selection of dance performances, live music, theatre and an International Market where participating countries would be represented in an often-culinary way. By using the medium of video, those experiences were recreated. Cooking workshops, dance performances and interviews with ambassadors were read, shared and absorbed.
Musical contributions were sent in from all corners of the world by artists that played at the Embassy Festival previously and are now playing on stages such as the Carnegie Hall (Karsu) and North Sea Jazz Festival (Con Brio). Even the Jimi Hendrix of the Hammond organ, Lachy Doley, got his band together in Australia to treat the online Embassy Festival visitor. On Thursday 3 and Friday 4 September, an online pub quiz took place, where knowledge about the participating countries was tested. This was presented by well-known pub quiz host Mark O’Loughlin.

A worldly experience.

All videos, interviews and recordings of the pub quiz will stay available on the Embassy Festival website. Festival director Carly Dutton looks back at this edition with pride. “It’s odd to organise a festival and not being able to see how the visitors are reacting to what you’ve done.

Thankfully, we’ve received many enthusiastic messages from them. That way, we still felt the connection with our community. That’s awesome! I think we’ve managed to create a worldly experience and that we were able to send surprises to the living rooms of our visitors.”

Protecting Education from Attack

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Protecting Education from Attack

By Sheikh Mubarak bin Nasser Al Thani, Head of Advocacy at Education Above All Foundation.

Over 11,000 attacks on education were reported in more than 36 countries in the past five years, according to the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA). This reality was exacerbated when COVID-19 disrupted the education of 1.6 billion children and youth around the world at the height of the pandemic this year.

The global crisis is a striking reminder that education – although a fundamental human right – is not guaranteed. With an estimated loss of 23.6 million learners in the next school year, and financial losses of almost $10 trillion globally, its impacts on education will stretch into the foreseeable future.

In a time when growing socio-economic disparities and the promise of the deepest global recession in living memory exacerbate an issue that unequally impacts the world’s most vulnerable communities, the international community must do better, to build back better.

Students walk through the rubble of a destroyed school in Gaza damaged after war 2014.

The call to action was first presented by Her Highness Sheikha Moza, on behalf of the State of Qatar, to the UN General Assembly, which proclaimed 9th of September the ‘International Day to Protect Education from Attack’ earlier this year.

Education must be moved out of the line of fire. Protection is key to reimagining and rebuilding the world’s education systems to be more resilient for the future. Schools should remain politically neutral spaces where children, youth and educational staff feel protected. 

Education is an enabling right with direct impacts on the realization of all other human rights. When education systems collapse, a lifeline to better health, women’s empowerment, civic engagement, social cohesion and peace cannot be sustained. The dynamics of conflict and insecurity continue to reduce opportunities for many of the most vulnerable children – those living in poor or rural areas, girls, refugees, persons with disabilities and forcibly displaced persons – to continue their learning.

Despite much progress made by the international community, deliberate and systemic attacks on education still occur and millions of children are impacted. 

Young Syrian refugees living in Terbol, informal tent settlement in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon.

So, what can be done?

Each year, the International Day to Protect Education from Attack will lend a platform to a growing issue that impacts the future of children and youth around the world. We must put mechanisms in place to ensure accountability and invest in research, strengthen policy-making, mobilize local leaders, and drive global activism to target the heinous attacks against education

With the gap in awareness steadily closing through initiatives such as Education Above All Foundation’s newly launched #UniteToProtect campaign, the global community must tackle gaps in monitoring and reporting of attacks on education. We need timely, accurate and actionable data on violations to bring violators to justice.

Education uplifts communities from trauma and helps build just, equal, inclusive peaceful societies. We have an opportunity to unite and demand action rather than reaction and promote access to safe, inclusive quality education for learners worldwide.

Pictures by ©EAA/Education Above All Foundation 

Ambassador Perugini, leaves The Hague

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Ambassador Perugini, leaves The Hague

H.E. Mr. Andrea Perugini, Italy’s Ambassador in The Hague, leaves the country

From 2016 to today, H.E. Mr. Andrea Perugini has skillfully represented his country in the Netherlands. As his post in The Hague draws to an end, the diplomatic community wants to thank him for the great contribution that he has brought to diplomatic life in Netherlands during his tenure as Italy’s Ambassador.

By Guido Lanfranchi.

It was in June 2016 that the whole adventure started, as the Italian government appointed a new Ambassador to the Netherlands: H.E. Mr. Andrea Perugini. An experienced diplomat with a career of over 30 years in Rome and around the world, Ambassador Perugini left his prestigious position at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ headquarters, where he was working as Deputy Director General/Principal Director for Asia, Oceania, and the Pacific, and moved to The Hague. 

In his new experience in The Hague, Ambassador Perugini had to cover a wide range of roles. Not only did he have to represent his country vis-à-vis the Dutch government and people, Mr. Perugini was also appointed as Italy’s Permanent Representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

In all domains, Ambassador Perugini’s work was remarkable and well appreciated by his colleagues in the diplomatic community. Soon, he became known for the seriousness and the quality of his work as Italy’s top diplomat in the Netherlands. 

During his four years as Ambassador, Mr. Perugini played a crucial role in promoting the Italian culture and traditions throughout the whole of the Netherlands. Thanks to his guidance, the Italian Gastronomy Week achieved an unprecedented degree of success.

H.E. Mr. Andrea Perugini and the Sicilian famous chef, Sr. Franco Giulio.

Moreover, he worked very hard to promote Italy’s musical culture during the events organized by the Embassy. Many from the diplomatic community of the Netherlands will remember the performance of the Fanfara dei Bersaglieri, Sezione di Altamura in May 2018, during the majestic celebration organized by Ambassador Perugini and the Italian Embassy for the 72nd anniversary of the Italian Republic.

H.E. Andrea Perugini, Ambassador of Italy during his speech on Il Giorno della Republica at Zuiderstrandtheater.

The Ambassador will surely be remembered by the Italian diaspora in the Netherlands too. Throughout his four years in the country, Mr. Perugini engaged extremely actively with the large number of Italians living in the Netherlands – including associations of businesspeople and shop-owners, as well as individual citizens. Day after day, his agenda was always full.

Opera singers Marc Chingari and Francesca Patane, Marco F. Riaskoff, Concert Management, Italian pianist and H.E. Andrea Perugini.

Ambassador Perugini’s activism was not confined to his role as Ambassador, but it was also an engaged Gender Champion and very much present in his work as Permanent Representative to the OPCW. An engaged figure in the organization, from May 2019 to May 2020 the Ambassador also had the honor to preside the OPCW’s Executive Council, steering its work through complex times.

Finally, the Spring of 2020 brought new challenges for the Ambassador. As the COVID-19 pandemic hit Italy and Europe very hard, Mr. Perugini and the whole Embassy had to double down on their work to address the needs of Italian citizens in the Netherlands and beyond. Yet, even in these difficult circumstances, the Ambassador strove to find a way to celebrate – albeit remotely – the 74th anniversary of the Italian Republic.

Ambassador Andrea Perugini and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands – Picture by ANP, Bart Maat.

After four intense years, however, Ambassador Perugini’s experience as Italy’s Ambassador in the Netherlands is now almost over. All good things come to an end, and so does any diplomatic posting. At the end of September, Mr. Perugini is set to leave his job, and Diplomat Magazine – together with the whole diplomatic community of the Netherlands – wants to bid a heartfelt farewell to him. Dear Ambassador, we will always remember you; best of luck for your future, and “arrivederci”!

International Day to Protect Education From Attack – An Overview

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International Day to Protect Education From Attack – An Overview

Image by ©EAA-Maher Attar: The single-room school is in a former chapel.  Four teachers, each with a blackboard, teach different classes in the room’s four corners. Moron District, Guitonniere, Haiti.

On 28 May 2020, UN General Assembly Resolution A/74/275 established the International Day to Protect Education from Attack on 9 September. The Resolution was spearheaded by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Education Above All (EAA) Foundation and UN Sustainable Development Goals Advocate, on behalf of the State of Qatar and co-sponsored by 62 countries. A long-term advocate of this urgent issue, HH Sheikha Moza aimed to draw attention to the plight of more than 75 million 3-to-18-year-olds living in 35 crisis-affected countries and to their urgent need of educational support. In light of the global pandemic, she has called on the international community to “ensure that the diseases of armed conflict and illiteracy that were prevalent before do not spread further”.

It reaffirms the protection of education as a fundamental human right for all, especially in times of conflict and insecurity. It comes amidst a global pandemic that has exacerbated existing inequities, particularly in marginalised societies.

Over the past five years, there have been more than 11,000 reported attacks on education in over 36 countries, according to the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA). Many of these attacks included the use of aerial bombing and shelling. 22,000 students, teachers and academics were killed, injured, arrested or otherwise harmed in attacks between 2015-2019.

#UniteToProtect Campaign

In the leadup to 9 September 2020, Education Above All (EAA) Foundation is launching #UniteToProtect, a Global Campaign to Protect Education from Attack with our partners UNICEF, UNESCO and Save Our Future campaign. The campaign has been launched with the aim to end the impunity for education-related violations of international law, create a strong ethos built on global justice, highlight the crucial need to strengthen mechanisms for the protection of education in private and public agendas, drive top-down and grassroots protection, and ensure uninterrupted access to quality education.

To learn more about EAA’s #UniteToProtect campaign for the International Day to Protect Education from Attack, visit http://unitetoprotect.educationaboveall.org/.

#UniteToProtect Key Facts 

  • EAA is committed to the protection of education as a fundamental human right. We believe all children and youth deserve uninterrupted access to education, especially in times of conflict and insecurity. 
  • Attacks on education are systemic and deliberate; reflective of a disturbing recurring trend around the world. Recent data by GCPEA shows:
  • COVID-19 has exacerbated the inequities in education:
  • The pandemic already put a billion learners out of school and led to 184 country-wide school closures.
  • The pandemic could force at least 9.7 million children out of school forever by the end of this year, according to a new report by Save the Children.
  • EAA will continue to fiercely advocate and raise global ambition for the protection of  the right to education in today’s uncertain and rapidly changing world of global pandemics, increasing conflict, extremism, migration, climate change and poverty.

About Education Above All (EAA) Foundation

The Education Above All (EAA) Foundation is a global education foundation established in 2012 by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser. EAA envisions bringing hope and real opportunity to the lives of impoverished and marginalised children, youth and women, especially in the developing world and in difficult circumstances such as conflict situations and natural disasters. We believe that education is the single most effective means of reducing poverty, generating economic growth and creating peaceful and just societies, as well as a fundamental right for all children and an essential condition to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For more information, visit educationaboveall.org 

EAA is comprised of four programmes: Educate A Child (EAC), Al Fakhoora, Reach Out To Asia (ROTA) and Protect Education in Insecurity and Conflict (PEIC). In addition to providing access to education for children around the world, EAA advocates to safeguard inclusive and quality education for all.

For more information, please visit www.educationaboveall.org.

About HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser

Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser has been actively engaged in education and other social reforms in Qatar for many years and has played a major role in spearheading national and international development projects – including leading Qatar’s presentation of Resolution 74/275 to the UN to establish the International Day to Protect Education from Attack. 

HH works with the United Nations to support global education and other key areas of development for marginalised children and youth, through her role as Sustainable Development Goals Advocate, among other UN roles. She is also Chairperson of Qatar Foundation (QF) and Founder and Chairperson of Silatech, an initiative that promotes enterprise and job creation in the Arab world with a mission to connect young people with employment and enterprise opportunities.

For more information, please visit www.mozabintnasser.qa/en. 

OPCW Director-General on Allegations of Chemical Weapons Use Against Alexei Navalny

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OPCW Director-General on Allegations of Chemical Weapons Use Against Alexei Navalny

THE HAGUE, Netherlands–3 September 2020–In response to the German federal government’s statement about the alleged poisoning of Mr Alexei Navalny with a nerve agent, the Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), H.E. Mr Fernando Arias, issued the following statement:

“Under the Chemical Weapons Convention, any poisoning of an individual through the use of a nerve agent is considered a use of chemical weapons. Such an allegation is a matter of grave concern. States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention deem the use of chemical weapons by anyone under any circumstances as reprehensible and wholly contrary to the legal norms established by the international community.

The OPCW continues to monitor the situation and stands ready to engage with and to assist any States Parties that may request its assistance.”

Mohamed Al Kuwari earns Spanish top honour

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Mohamed Al Kuwari earns Spanish top honour

Tuesday, 1 September 2020, Madrid, Kingdom of Spain: The Spanish Council of Ministers consented to bestow the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabel the Catholic to erstwhile Qatari Ambassador to Spain, Mohamed bin Jaham bin Abdulaziz Al Kuwari, now serving as his country’s head of mission to Germany. 

Al Kuwari served as chef de mission in Spain between 2017 and 2019 before passing on the post to Ambassador Abdalla Al Hamas. During Al Kuwari’s farewell allocution, he particularly thanked Spain for supporting Qatar in the aftermath of the blockade imposed by neighbouring countries. 

Since Thursday, 21 November 2019 Ambassador Mohamed Al Kuwari (b. 1958) was accredited before German Federal President Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier at Bellevue Palace. He is a studied political scientist who speaks fluent Arabic, English, French and Spanish. 

 The Orden de Isabel la Católica is a Spanish civil, stately order wherein membership is granted in recognition of services that benefit the country. Nowadays it is the order given in particular to those individuals promoting Spanish relations with the international community. The order was instituted by King Ferdinand VII on 14 March 1815. Today the order’s Grand Master is King Felipe VI, and its chancellor the Spanish Foreign Minister, Arancha González Laya, both ex officio. 

The grand cross granted to Ambassador Al Kuwari is of the first rank, entitling him to i) personal nobility, and ii) the predicate of ‘Excelentísimo Señor Don‘ (Most Excellent Lord) before his given names. 

For further information 

Protocol of the Order of Isabel the Catholic: http://www.exteriores.gob.es/Portal/es/SalaDePrensa/Multimedia/Publicaciones/Documents/2011orden%20isabel%20la%20catolica_reglamento.pdf

Members in the Order of Isabel the Catholic: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Condecorados_con_la_Orden_de_Isabel_la_Católica#Gran_Cruz

ICC President meets with His Holiness Pope Francis at the Vatican

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ICC President meets with His Holiness Pope Francis at the Vatican

His Holiness Pope Francis and the President of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji.

The President of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji, was received by His Holiness Pope Francis at the Vatican on 3 September 2020. The ICC President also met with the Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, during his official visit to the Holy See.

During his audience, the ICC President briefed His Holiness on the Court’s latest judicial developments as well as its achievements and challenges in fighting impunity for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. He recalled the traditional role of the Holy See in anchoring and disseminating the message of peace to all humanity, and emphasized that that message resonates strongly with the mandate of the ICC, which is to reduce warfare and the devastating effects of armed conflicts through the rule of law. 

The ICC President drew parallels between the coinciding values of the Holy See and the ICC, including supporting human rights and the rule of law, preventing human suffering brought by armed conflict, protecting the most vulnerable people, rebuilding communities and societies shattered by violence, and bringing messages of hope for a better future. In that sense, he underscored the union of purpose between the Holy See and the ICC in the pursuit of peace for humanity: the Holy See being a foremost spiritual agency for the message of peace, while the ICC seeks to discharge its mandate as an important temporal instrument for the actualization of peace.

The ICC President relayed how further, global support is needed for the Court. Referring to the current challenges to global values of peace and justice, he asked for support to encourage States to ratify the Rome Statute – the founding treaty of the Court – and desist from attacking the Court as it fulfills its functions. Through such support for the system of international criminal justice and the Court’s continued work, he said, dividends of peace through justice will inure to the benefit humanity wherever such dividends are in urgent need.  

Photography by ©Servizio Fotografico Vaticano.

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