HE the Adviser at the Emiri Diwan and Qatar’s candidate to the post of the director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kuwari highlighted the important role of culture and the Unesco in promoting world peace.
Speaking on Monday night during the international symposium on promoting peace and dialogue values in the Tunisian city of Sousse, HE al-Kuwari said that the Unesco was created in order to respond to the firm belief of intellectuals that humanity’s moral, intellectual solidarity, and knowledge are the bases to establish a lasting peace and to develop human societies of different cultures and civilisations.
He underlined that dialogue and culture are the foundation stones to establish peace, noting that the world today is facing a cultural war rather than a military one, and that real peace should be built inside human minds through planting common human values before thinking about the economic and political agreements between governments, because peace is based on the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind.
Al-Kuwari highlighted the issue of education and its relation to culture, stressing that education is a right for all. He called for international attention to education, especially for girls and women being the most segments deprived of this right, and stressed the need to overcome the difficulties so that women can be effective in building society.
He underlined the important role of culture in countering terrorism in its main strongholds, pointing out that the Arab heritage is exposed to looting and destruction.  
The Qatari candidate renewed his call, made at the Forum d’Avignon in the French city of Bordeaux recently, to customise a global day for peace culture in order to face terrorism through the power of culture.
Al-Kuwari hailed the democratic experience in Tunisia which makes the country a model for a modern civil state that protects human rights and works to achieve development and prosperity to the Tunisian people


GCC ministers back  al-Kuwari’s nomination
GCC ministers of higher education and scientific research have affirmed their support to Qatar’s bid for the position of director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) and supported the nomination of HE the Adviser at the Emiri Diwan Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kuwari to this post.   
The ministers held their 18th meeting at the GCC General-Secretariat in Riyadh yesterday.  
HE the Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr Mohamed Abdul Wahed Ali al-Hammadi presided over Qatar’s delegation to the meeting.
The meeting discussed a paper presented by Qatar on joint investment in education, and equal treatment and enrolment of the people of the GCC countries in the universities and public higher education institutions, as well as issues pertaining to the Supreme Council’s decision on the adoption of the guidelines for the equivalence of higher education certificates.