Source: Government of Qatar
Geneva – Media & Communication Dept. – March 08
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries underlined the critical importance of building robust social security systems to address the successive challenges that the world has witnessed since the Covid-19 pandemic.
The GCC countries explained that financial constraints and economic and operational challenges on the one hand, and disparate income levels and the increasing financial gap on the other hand, represent fundamental obstacles and directly affect the ability of countries to fulfill their obligations in this area.
This came in the statement delivered by HE Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations in Geneva, Dr. Hind Abdulrahman Al Muftah on behalf of the GCC countries, in her capacity as Chairperson of the Gulf Group, during the “panel discussion on the right to social security,” within the framework of the 55th session of the UN Human Rights Council.
Her Excellency said, in the GCC statement, that acute disparity poses a major challenge in many countries in which socially marginalized groups still do not enjoy adequate protection or whose basic needs are not adequately met by social security, stressing the importance of these countries having better opportunities to benefit from best practices, exchange experiences and receive adequate technical support.
The statement indicated that the GCC countries are investing enormous resources to ensure that social security systems meet all international conditions and standards in terms of effectiveness and efficiency, moved by their conviction that building robust and effective social security systems is a basic condition for their citizens and residents to enjoy their full rights without discrimination, noting the advanced places they occupy according to international standards for the quality of social security.
At the collective level, the statement said that the GCC countries have adopted the unified system for extending insurance protection to citizens of the GCC countries, which ensures that all citizens of the GCC countries enjoy quality social coverage within the six GCC countries.