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Qatar Urges Human Rights Council to Take Active Measures to Stop Blockading Countries' Violations

Qatar Urges Human Rights Council to Take Active Measures to Stop Blockading Countries' Violations

Geneva / Information Office / September 13  

The State of Qatar called Thursday on the United Nations Human Rights Council to take active and direct measures to deal with the violations made by the blockading countries against Qatari citizens.

This came during the speech of Deputy Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the UN in Geneva Abdullah Al Nuaimi, which took place at an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur concerned with the negative repercussions of coercive measures on human rights, as part of the 39th session of the Human Rights Council.

Al Nuaimi cited the report by technical mission of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which described the measures taken by the blockading countries as unilateral and coercive. Al Nuaimi expressed the State of Qatar's regret that the special rapporteur concerned with the subject failed to take any tangible measures, despite the availability of information regarding those violations and his demands of dealing with them.

The Deputy Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the UN in Geneva also cited the verdict by the International Justice Court requiring the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to implement provisional measures that limit the impact of some of the violations committed against Qatari citizens. Those measures included allowing Qatari students back into UAE universities they are enrolled in, reuniting families separated by the blockade, and allowing Qatari citizens to seek the UAE judicial system to look into their cases.

Al Nuaimi stressed on the importance of the verdict, but maintained that the Human Rights Council must work on ending those violations committed by the other blockading countries, as those violations remain in place and their urgent nature requires taking direct and active measures.

The Deputy Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the UN in Geneva said that the credibility of the UN Human Rights Council depends on its integrity and independence of its mechanisms in ending human rights violations, and holding those responsible for it accountable.

Al Nuaimi stressed that the council can never be active if its mechanisms were not, especially the special procedures.