The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) organised a training course at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the 25th and 26th of October 2017 on “Refugee Protection in International Law”, in the presence of experts and specialists from the Commission with the participation of governmental bodies and institutes in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

The course was opened by Director of Organizations, Ambassador Tawfeeq Ahmed Al-Mansoor, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He delivered a speech during which he stressed the growing cooperation between the Kingdom of Bahrain and the United Nations and its agencies, reflecting the joint keenness to continue and develop this cooperation through programs and initiatives that support current and future cooperation opportunities between the two parties.

In line with the Government’s Action Plan (2015-2018) and its alignment with the implementation of the goals of sustainable development 2030, he noted that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa’s signing of the Strategic Partnership Framework Agreement between the Kingdom of Bahrain and the 16 UN resident and regional agencies in Bahrain, underlies the close relationship between the Kingdom and the United Nations.

He also noted that this training course is the culmination of the relations between the Kingdom and the United Nations agencies and is aimed at achieving the vision of the wise leadership in the implementation of programs, workshops and training courses aimed at improving cooperation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, affirming the continuation of this cooperation between the Ministry and the Regional Office of the Commission through the implementation of training programs to build capacity in cooperation with several governmental and civil authorities.

Senior Regional Protection Officer for the Regional Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Hajar Musa, also delivered a speech at the opening of the course, in which she expressed her deep thanks to the Kingdom of Bahrain for its support to the refugees and sheltering a number of them, noting the cooperation and support provided by the Kingdom to refugees, which reflects its concern for this international and humanitarian issue and stressing that the Kingdom of Bahrain has always been an important partner in the region of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

During the course, a number of topics discussed were related to refugees, the concept of asylum in Islam and international law, legal frameworks for the protection of refugees and asylum seekers, and the mechanism adopted by the High Commissioner that coordinates between them and the implementing partners.

Director of Organizations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Tawfeeq Ahmed Al-Mansoor, at the end of the course honoured the lecturers and distributed the certificates to the trainees participating in the course.

Source: Fana News