UN Authority Figures

UN Human Rights Council: Qatar


Qatar supports the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and has a close relationship with the Taliban and certain al-Qaeda affiliates. Photo: Protesters against Qatar-sponsored terrorism, September 3, 2017
Source: BBC News, June 13, 2017

Mission of the Human Rights Council:
"The General Assembly...2. Decides that the Council shall be responsible for promoting universal respect for the protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction of any kind and in a fair and equal manner; 3. Decides also that the Council should address situations of violations of human rights, including gross and systematic violations, and make recommendations thereon..." (Resolution 60/251)

Qatar's Term of office: 2015-2017, reelected to term 2018-2020

Qatar's Record on human rights:
"The principal human rights problems were the inability of citizens to choose their government in free and fair periodic elections, restriction of fundamental civil liberties, and denial of the rights of foreign workers. The monarch-appointed government prohibited organized political parties and restricted civil liberties, including freedoms of speech, press, and assembly and access to a fair trial for persons held under the Protection of Society Law and the Combating Terrorism Law. Other continuing human rights concerns included restrictions on the freedoms of religion and movement, since migrant workers could not freely travel abroad. Legal, institutional, and cultural discrimination against women limited their participation in society. Trafficking in persons, primarily in the domestic worker and labor sectors, was a continuing problem...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."
(U.S. State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2016, Qatar)

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