HH Sheikha Moza addresses World Conference on Oratory, Debate and Dialogue

Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser spoke at the opening of the Fourth World Conference on Oratory, Debate and Dialogue at the Qatar National Convention Centre.

 
Participants at the conference, organised by Qatar Debate, include some 150 academics, educators and keen debaters, presenting 120 research papers over three days.

The conference is being held in an Arab country and features Arabic, along with English, as the language of debate for the first time.
 
Addressing the audience, Her Highness said that debate and dialogue are methods of expression used by man since ancient times, and are becoming more important than ever before. “After centuries of clashes and resentment, of power struggles and conflicts, we now have unprecedented opportunities for dialogue and mutual understanding."
 
Her Highness pointed to the "tremendous impact" of technology, which has allowed for "lively and continuous debate between people all across the world."Highlighting the major technological shift, Sheikha Moza said that any attempt to restrain freedom of expression is destined to fail. "In the past, our young people were mere recipients of information and boundaries. Their reality was set for them by traditional institutions. But today their role in society has undergone a major shift."

"Our young people have levels of awareness and education that allow for a structure of awareness to be build from bottom to top, not vice versa," HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser said. Her Highness added that collective and cross-border dialogue through technological tools has enabled young people to enjoy a new and effective role and increased influence.
 
Sheikha Moza referred to the Arab Spring revolutions to highlight the momentum young people can create when they have access to the right tools. "The people's revolutions in our region showed us that when the Arab youth could no longer accept the despotism that set their reality, they took to the alternative reality of social media to conduct their debates and dialogues. Eventually they succeeded in influencing their conditions and led the processes that changed their realities. Later the dialogue went back into its rightful place: in the capitals of these revolutions and was no longer confined to social media and websites."
 
Her Highness highlighted the importance of dialectic skills in enabling young people to become the leaders of the future. "While young people are the most important element for driving change in our societies, statistical and objective facts show that society also has a duty to prepare them properly for effective decision-making and leadership.""The ability to dialogue, to debate and to use rhetoric are among the most important conditions in these roles that help develop young people to become representatives of a generation, of an era, of a vision of the future."

Her Highness underscored the importance of education as an essential tool to raise responsible adults and develop leaders, stressing that through education "starts the expression of opinions by using logic and then the critical act grows to become critical thinking innovative and not an idle mind that only copies."
 
Sheikha Moza emphasised that Qatar's vision for education and development includes "educational curricula and teaching methods based on debate, deepening the culture of dialogue, developing the dialogue capacity of students, stimulating the critical thinking they have and promoting the spirit of innovation in the industry of ideas, in order to prepare them for leadership roles in the present and the future."