The countries that are blockading Qatar have violated most of the international conventions and principles on human rights, a Qatar University (QU) official has noted. 
“Now Qatar has three options to legally challenge the blockading countries," said Mohamed al-Khulaifi, dean, Faculty of Law, Qatar University at a symposium organised by Arab Centre for Research & Policy Studies (ACRPS) at Doha Institute for Graduate Studies on Wednesday.
“The first option is a political procedure which is a non-judicial one. The second one is to take it to the International Human Rights Council, which is the official global entity related to human rights violation. And the third one is the international judicial procedure at the International Court of Justice,” explained al-Khulaifi.
“Taking into account the number of violations that have happened to the people of the country economically, socially and in other aspects, Qatar can take up the matter to the International Court of Justice. Qatar has taken a great initiative by establishing a committee to look into the violations and other cases that have affected the Qatari people,” he continued.
“Acting on behalf of these people, the committee can approach the local or international courts. Individuals also can approach the local courts on account of the losses but at the international court, individuals cannot represent the case. Only the country can represent there,” he noted. 
Majed al-Ansari, a QU political strategist, said that before the crisis, there have been differences with the blockading countries on certain issues but they were solved without any serious consequences. 
“Arab Spring divided the Arab countries into two groups and Qatar had taken a clear stand on this issue. With Donald Trump becoming the US President there were several changes. Though President Trump followed a different line on the present crisis, several departments in the Trump administration did not go with his policy,” said al-Ansari.
He also said that the present crisis and the Iraq war has many similarities. “The blockading countries are propagating several false information on Qatar as it happened in the case of Iraq on weapons of mass destruction. However, Iran is the greatest beneficiary of the crisis,” he added.
Dr Khalid Rashed al-Khater, a monetary policy expert, also spoke at the symposium. Sheikh Suhaim al-Thani from ACRPS moderated.
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