The National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) has called on the United Nations to "immediately" implement the findings of a report which concluded that a blockade imposed by neighbouring countries against Doha was "without legal basis".
The NHRC called on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (OHCHR) to implement the findings of the November 2017 report, which found the actions carried out by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt against Qatar to be discriminatory, without legal basis and amounted to "economic warfare".
According to the OHCHR report, the measures taken by the quartet last June were unilateral, coercive and arbitrary and had a permanent effect on the union of families and the social fabric of the region as a whole.
On June 5 last year, the four countries severed diplomatic, trade and travel ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting "terrorism".
Qatar has repeatedly denied the allegations as "baseless," while the four countries have failed to provide any evidence of their claims.
Later that month, they issued a 13-point list of demands, including the shutdown of Al Jazeera, limiting ties with Iran and expelling Turkish troops stationed in the country as a prerequisite to lifting the blockade.
Qatar rejected the demands denouncing them as an attempt to infringe on the country's sovereignty.
"The NHRC calls upon the OHCHR to continue its efforts and to immediately move according to the foundations of the Mission's report... to ensure an immediate end to the blockade and the suffering of the victims," the NHRC said in a statement.
Earlier this month, HE the NHRC chairman Ali bin Smaikh al-Marri said the report proved that the blockade was arbitrary and racist in nature.
"This report shows without doubt that these procedures undertaken by the blockading countries are not mere diplomatic severing of relations, they are not just an economic boycott," he said.
He also pointed out the OHCHR team reached out to the blockading countries before releasing the report, but received no response.
OHCHR representatives conducted interviews with 20 government and non-government organisations, and 40 victims during the course of their evaluation.
Swiss group condemns siege countries' response to UN report
The Swiss Organisation for Protection of Human Rights (SPH) on Thursday issued a statement in response to the siege countries' statement on the report of the technical mission of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights about its visit to Qatar from November 17 to 24 last year, the Qatar News Agency reported.
The organisation said it monitored a number of violations against Qataris and residents, and acts of arbitrariness against them. It then condemned what the siege countries said about their disapproval of the UN report, and the remark that the siege was an exercise of their sovereign right to protect and defend their national security. This does not give them the right to violate the United Nations Charter, the organisation said.
The SPH also denounced the violations committed by the siege countries against Qatar.
According to the OHCHR report, the measures taken by the quartet last June were unilateral, coercive and arbitrary and had a permanent effect on the union of families and the social fabric of the region as a whole.
On June 5 last year, the four countries severed diplomatic, trade and travel ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting "terrorism".
Qatar has repeatedly denied the allegations as "baseless," while the four countries have failed to provide any evidence of their claims.
Later that month, they issued a 13-point list of demands, including the shutdown of Al Jazeera, limiting ties with Iran and expelling Turkish troops stationed in the country as a prerequisite to lifting the blockade.
Qatar rejected the demands denouncing them as an attempt to infringe on the country's sovereignty.
"The NHRC calls upon the OHCHR to continue its efforts and to immediately move according to the foundations of the Mission's report... to ensure an immediate end to the blockade and the suffering of the victims," the NHRC said in a statement.
Earlier this month, HE the NHRC chairman Ali bin Smaikh al-Marri said the report proved that the blockade was arbitrary and racist in nature.
"This report shows without doubt that these procedures undertaken by the blockading countries are not mere diplomatic severing of relations, they are not just an economic boycott," he said.
He also pointed out the OHCHR team reached out to the blockading countries before releasing the report, but received no response.
OHCHR representatives conducted interviews with 20 government and non-government organisations, and 40 victims during the course of their evaluation.
Swiss group condemns siege countries' response to UN report
The Swiss Organisation for Protection of Human Rights (SPH) on Thursday issued a statement in response to the siege countries' statement on the report of the technical mission of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights about its visit to Qatar from November 17 to 24 last year, the Qatar News Agency reported.
The organisation said it monitored a number of violations against Qataris and residents, and acts of arbitrariness against them. It then condemned what the siege countries said about their disapproval of the UN report, and the remark that the siege was an exercise of their sovereign right to protect and defend their national security. This does not give them the right to violate the United Nations Charter, the organisation said.
The SPH also denounced the violations committed by the siege countries against Qatar.
