Activists criticize Qatar's human rights violations in Geneva

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Fri, 08 Mar 2019 - 02:47 GMT

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Fri, 08 Mar 2019 - 02:47 GMT

Part of the conference - Egypt Today

Part of the conference - Egypt Today

CAIRO - 8 March 2019: Human rights activists have criticized the absence of democracy and freedoms in Qatar during a seminar held Thursday on the sideline of the 40th session of the Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, launched on Feb. 27.

The activists noted that Qatar's political process has stopped since 2008, as no elections for municipal councils for example was held since then.

During the seminar organized by Egypt's Forum for ‎Development and Human Rights Dialogue (Moltaka) and the Women and Development ‎Association, it was referred that Qatar's Shura Council Law needs to be amended to allow Qatari citizens to run for the Council's elections.

According to the activists, electing members of Qatar's Shura Council is only limited to the appointments of the country's Emir. They also affirmed that the country's law must be amended to set a new law which allows the legislative system to question the government, especially after the rise of international accusations against the current government of supporting terrorism.

Moltaka head Saeed Abdel Hafez stressed during his statements on the existence of flagrant violations of human rights in Qatar on the level of civil and political rights.

He added that the right to citizenship in Qatar is subjected to serious violations, noting the government's procedure in stripping complete tribes of their Qatari nationalities, meanwhile, granting the citizenship to other people listed on the international terrorist list and accused of being involved in terrorist operations.

"Qatar does not allow activists to establish human rights organizations, as they never stopped harassing opponents in different ways," Hafez said.

Aida Nour, head of the Women and Development ‎Association, affirmed that her NGO recorded a number of evidences that prove extreme violations to human rights by the Qatari government, including inequality between Qatari citizens and citizens by naturalization, as Qataris do not have the same political rights as citizens of national origin.

She also pointed out that the distinction between men and women regarding the granting of citizenship to their children is still one of the most important problems facing the right to equality, as some citizens due to this procedure suffer to get simple rights such as education, health care or employment opportunities.

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