Dr. Wajdan Al-Aqab, President of the Kuwaiti Society for Environmental Protection and Regional Coordinator of the Facilitators Team, United Nations Environment Programme, participated for two days in the regional consultative meeting of major groups and stakeholders in West Asia, held at Al Bustan Palace in the Omani capital, Muscat.
She stated that she conducted a “capacity-building workshop” within the framework of meetings attended by more than 18 associations, seeking to achieve several objectives, including increasing the number of accredited organizations from the West Asia region, facilitating team building between different organizations, enhancing understanding of the United Nations Environment Programme, how key groups and stakeholders can participate, and the role of regional facilitators.
Dr. Al-Aqab explained that the objectives of the regional coordination mechanism are “to increase awareness of the possibilities of participation in the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) for major groups and stakeholders from the West Asia region, to develop and promote the core messages and positions of the MGS in the West Asia region, to issue a joint regional statement for the official information document of the UNEA-6 meeting, to agree on the main messages directed to the Arab Forum for Environment, and to promote dialogue and coordination to increase the participation and involvement of civil society in the regional and global environmental agenda.”.
She noted that during her management of the capacity-building workshop, she addressed the humanitarian catastrophe of the Zionist aggression against the Gaza Strip and the occupied Palestinian territories, and the repercussions of this, of course, on the violations and environmental impacts in all its fields. She pointed out that the “International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict, November 6” was included in the discussions, coinciding with the events taking place in occupied Palestine, as well as the approaching date of the annual celebration of this international day by the Kuwaiti Society for Environmental Protection, which is entrusted to the State of Kuwait to promote annually.
