Qatar’s National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) has called upon the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to suspend the membership of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from the council for their violations of human rights, especially against the people of Qatar, according to a report by The Peninsula.

HE Dr. Ali bin Smaikh Al Marri (pictured), the Chairman of QNHRC, said at a recent press conference in Geneva: “We call for the suspension of membership of the KSA and the UAE in the Human Rights Council in accordance to clause 8 of UN General Assembly Resolution 25160 of March 15, 2006 on the establishment of the Human Rights Council.”

Al Marri also asked the Human Rights Council to issue a resolution against human rights violations resulting from the illegal blockade and take into account the appeals and reports issued by the Special Rapporteurs and the report of the technical mission of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). 

The committee also urged the Qatari government to call on the UN Security Council to determine the responsibility of the blockading countries because of the illegal measures they have taken against the country, Qatar Tribune reported.

“Unfortunately these countries are members of the Human Rights Council,” Al Marri said of the blockading nations. 

“The siege is a punishment to Qatari residents and the citizens of the GCC countries and has been used as a tool for political pressure and a means of managing political differences,” Al Marri noted.

“The illegal measures of discrimination can be amounting to the crime of racism and its purpose in the economic, commercial and investment fields is targeting and striking the infrastructure of Qatar’s national economy and damaging the economic rights of individuals and communities which is a dangerous precedent that amounts to the crime of aggression and economic war,” he stated.

“The the annual report of the siege violations on Qatar confirmed that there is no response from the siege countries to address and stop the escalating violations and that the continuation of the tragedy of the separated families will greatly disrupt the social fabric of the Gulf. It also violates the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and The Convention on the Elimination of All Racial Discrimination,” he added.

“We can not allow the Berlin Wall to be built in the 21st century, and the dismemberment of families like what happened with the two Koreas,” he said.

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Cover image credit: Qatar Tribune