Prince Hassan celebrates 67th birthday today

AMMAN — HRH Prince Hassan today celebrates his 67th birthday. 

The past year has seen the prince pursue an extremely busy schedule, continuing his focus on the cross-cutting themes of water, energy, the human environment and human dignity.

Through the Royal Scientific Society, the Arab Thought Forum (ATF), the Higher Council for Science and Technology (HCST) and the Royal Institute of Inter-Faith Studies (RIIFS), which in turn are the umbrella institutions for many other organisations, the prince continues to actively seek ways to strengthen the rights of Jordanians and to further the country’s interests both regionally and internationally.  

He firmly believes that good governance can only be achieved by an uncompromising respect for human rights and human dignity.  

Throughout his writings and talks, Prince Hassan has always maintained his call for dialogue within the region from all sectors of society “between the sons and daughters of the Arab nation” to spread the values of tolerance, respect and citizenship.

It is not possible to detail all of his organisations’ activities, but to highlight just a few: For its part, the ATF, under the patronage of Prince Hassan, hosted a series of lively debates on His Majesty King Abdullah’s Discussion Papers. 

The Royal Scientific Society was selected against heavy competition to host the World Science Forum in 2017 — a significant achievement. This forum will allow Jordan to add its voice to the dialogue with the world’s scientific community.  

In a similar vein, the HCST, in cooperation with the University of Jordan, launched the Jordan Scenarios Project 2030.  

And finally, this year will mark 20 years since the inception of RIIFS by the prince, with events planned to mark this milestone.

Under Prince Hassan’s chairmanship, the West Asia-North Africa (WANA) Forum held its annual meeting in Amman in June last year. The theme of the 2013 forum was “Achieving the Human Dignity of the Uprooted”, which, with an estimated 26 million uprooted around the world and 20 million in the WANA region alone, proved timely.    

The prince highlighted the ongoing conflict in Syria as the foremost regional threat to human security as well as the burden faced by neighbouring countries hosting the uprooted people of Syria fleeing their homeland.  

The forum’s Guiding Principles fed into the High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development — the only submission from the region.   The theme of the 2014 WANA Forum will be the “Legal Empowerment of the Poor”.

Billions of people around the world live without the full protection of the law, denying them their rights and human dignity. Prince Hassan recently joined eminent persons from around the world in signing a statement to the UN member states calling for justice to be included in the Post-2015 Development Goals.  

In May 2013, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed the prince as the Chairman of his Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation (UNSGAB).  

Prince Hassan has sought to use the platform offered by his chairmanship to advocate for a standalone goal for water and sanitation in the post-2015 development goals. In his keynote speech at World Water Day in The Hague in March, he continued his long-term call for a supranational regional commission for water and energy. 

In November 2013, the prince was honoured in Marrakech as the recipient of the inaugural Ibn Rushd International Award in recognition of his achievements in promoting human rights and human dignity and for his efforts to build bridges that transcend political and religious barriers.    

Prince Hassan and Princess Sarvath were blessed last December by the birth of their eighth grandchild — Prince El Hassan Ibn Rashid.  

The prince will be spending his birthday quietly with his family.