(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The Peninsula
The National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) has received 3,970 complaints since the beginning of the siege, said the committee in its fourth comprehensive report issued by the United Nations and its Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The complaints include 504 violations of the right to education, 1,174 to the right to property, 629 to the right to family reunification, 1,261 to the right to freedom of movement, 37 to the right to health, 163 to the right to practice religious rites, 109 violations of the right to work, and 93 to the right to residence.
NHRC also received some 236 Qatari students studying in universities in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain who suddenly found themselves deprived of continuing their studies, reported QNA.
In the field of media, the Committee recorded 103 cases of media personnel who are citizens of the three countries who used to work at a number of Qatari media outlets, who all were subjected to different types of violations, including pressure to force them to resign, which forced 10 journalists to acquiesce. The siege countries have also blocked Qatari channels, both government and private.
In the report, NHRC called on the international community to promptly move to lift the siege imposed on the State of Qatar and exert all possible efforts to alleviate its repercussions on the citizens and residents of the country as well as citizens of the three Gulf siege countries.
NHRC said in the report that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has to present reports and data documenting the different types of grave violations that affected a lot of people, particularly with regard to the displacement of families and the dire consequences for women and children following the disintegration of families.
The report also demands these countries to respect the basic freedoms and called for submitting a detailed report on these violations to the Human Rights Council, the special rapporteurs of states and the contractual mechanisms in order to address them and ensure that they are not repeated.
In its recommendations to the Human Rights Council, NHRC called for a decision and all possible measures to lift the siege and the resulting violations in addition compensating all victims for the damage caused to them, and establishing a fact-finding committee and meeting directly with victims.
The recommendations addressed to the special rapporteurs of the Human Rights Council urged them to respond promptly to the committee's reports and victims' letters by issuing urgent appeals in this regard, in addition to recommending the governments of the siege countries to lift the violations and redress victims. The committee also asked for field visits to the State of Qatar and the siege countries in order to identify human rights violations as a result of the siege and document them in periodic reports to be submitted to the Human Rights Council.
NHRC sent recommendations to the general secretariat of the Gulf Cooperation Council, inviting its legal affairs sector, especially the human rights office, to address the siege countries to lift the violations, redress the victims and stop any new arbitrary measures.
The committee's report directed five recommendations to the siege countries, calling on them to abide by the commitments contained in the human rights conventions that they have ratified and acceded to, cease and address violations, redress the victims, respond to its reports as well as international reports, allow field visits by international organizations and missions to closely learn about the humanitarian cases, and the need to take the political side away from the humanitarian and social conditions and not using it as a pressure card in violation of international law and international human rights law.
The report also featured recommendations to the Qatari government, including the need to take all possible steps at the international level and the Security Council, international courts and arbitration committees to lift the siege on citizens and residents and redress the victims, in addition to calling the compensation committee to accelerate the litigation procedures and facilitate the procedures for integrating students in Qatari universities and the educational system and addressing humanitarian cases for some of the affected.
NHRC noted that the siege countries did not respond to reports submitted to them on the ongoing humanitarian and human rights violations caused by the siege since June.
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