Geneva conference discuses Qatari human rights violations

CAIRO – 16 September2017:Qatar’s violations for human rights were discussed during a conference held Friday in Geneva titled “Qatar: State of Oppression and Torture”.

Several testimonials were heard during the conference for a number of cases.

The conference, organized by the Arab Federation for Human Rights (AFHR), was presented by several human rights officials, including General Coordinator of the Arab Federation for Human Rights Sarhan Sadi, and President of the Arab Organization for Human Rights Abdel Rahman Nofal.

One of the participants in the conference described the situation of foreign labor in her speech as “very difficult”. She added that the Qatari government does not take any safety measures and forces them to work for long hours, as they don’t pay them salaries as a punishment in case they decided to refuse doing anything.

”The labor law needs major reforms,” she said, adding that the Qatari government must stop violating the law.

A member of the board of directors of the Democracy Society for Human Rights, Iman Kabany, said during the conference that the Qatari people have huge fears regarding the continuing violation of the human rights taking place in the country.

“Qatari pilgrims were banned from traveling to Saudi Arabia to do their religious rituals, which was completely unacceptable,” Kabany said during her speech.

Furthermore, Kabany added that the well-known Mona al Sulaiti was pursued and threatened by Qatari security forces, along with more politicians and public figures.

Earlier on Friday, many Qatari people expressed their rage at the ruling regime’s policies via Twitter’s trending hashtag “I’m Qatari and represented by the opposition.” It reflects the anger Qataris feel as a result of the spread of foreign troops in Doha and other Qatari cities, amid a crisis with four Arab countries since June 5.