Chairman of the National Human Rights (NHRC) Committee Dr Ali bin Smaikh al-Marri has reviewed the challenges faced by the committee in light of the smear campaigns that aimed to derail its efforts in revealing the violations by the siege countries since the start of the GCC crisis on June 5.
This came during his participation in the 22nd Asia Pacific Forum. He noted that the attempts to derail the committee came through media institutions and non-governmental organisations based in the siege countries. He added that the response always came from the designated international institutions as the NHRC operates in accordance to the Paris principles. He thanked the forum, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions for their great support of the committee in its role of documenting the violations of the siege countries towards the citizens and residents of Qatar as well of the GCC.
Al-Marri simultaneously called for enhancing co-operation between independent national institutions in the humanitarian field and to avoid staying impartial when there are violations of human rights.
He stressed that impartiality should be denounced when it comes to violations of human rights as it was a duty to reveal and condemn any behaviour that undermines human rights in accordance with international agreements in that regard.
Al-Marri also provided an overview of the violations that Qatari and GCC citizens as well as residents of Qatar were subjected to. These violations included separating families, which was one of the most severe of all violations given it affected the unity of the GCC family. It also affected weaker segments of society such as women, children, people with disabilities, and the elderly. He also discussed the violations that students, investors, and those performing Haj and Umrah were subjected to. He highlighted that those violations took place in an atmosphere thriving on hate speech.
The chairman of NHRC also discussed the committee’s method in documenting those violations and filling reports for international organisations that carried statistics related to those violations.