UN Authority Figures

UN General Assembly Vice-President: Qatar

Migrant workers building infrastructure for a new city in Qatar which will host 2022 World Cup matches are still suffering exploitation and severe human rights violations despite promised government reforms.
Source: The Guardian, September 26, 2018

Mission of the General Assembly:
"13. The General Assembly shall initiate studies and make recommendations for the purpose of:
    a. promoting international co-operation in the political field and encouraging the progressive development of international law and its codification;
    b. promoting international co-operation in the economic, social, cultural, educational, and health fields, and assisting in the realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion." ("UN Charter")

Term of office: 2018-2019

Qatar's Record on "the realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion":
"The most significant human rights issues included restrictions on freedoms of speech and press, including criminalization of libel; restrictions on assembly and association, including prohibitions on political parties and labor unions; restrictions on the freedom of movement for migrant workers' travel abroad; limits on the ability of citizens to choose their government in free and fair elections; and criminalization of male same sex sexual activity...The government interprets sharia as allowing corporal punishment for certain criminal offenses, including court-ordered flogging in cases of alcohol consumption and extramarital sex by Muslims... social and legal discrimination against women persisted... Traditions of sharia also significantly disadvantage women in family, property, and inheritance law and in the judicial system generally."
(U.S. State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2017, Qatar)

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