Opinion: Towards Adopting a Human Rights Approach for Deterring the Qatari Regime

Cairo - 4 July 2017: For many years now Doha’s ruling elite have mastered the game of employing slick maneuvers in political expansion at the expense of the region’s nations, their stability and their legitimate regimes. Over the past weeks, many have revealed a few of that game’s secrets, especially those concerning the Qatari regime’s investment in directed media; whether through sponsoring and manufacturing its entire content, or through partially sponsoring it and owning its majority stakes with the intention of influencing its content in favor of a specific agenda which Doha adopts.

Moreover, Qatar has used religious groups and charity organizations as a cover for supporting terrorist groups and integrating them in political processes, all while exploiting the flaws in the phase known as “The Arab Spring”, and the political movements that some of the region’s countries have witnessed.

However, what has not been revealed or examined enough is the Qatari regime’s mysterious relationship with international non-governmental organizations and content creators for human rights activism. Recent events have set the proper stage to explicate the seriousness of this dimension of Qatar’s influence. In particular, Amnesty International, one of the top human rights platforms in the world, attempted to rescue the Qatari regime by covering Qatar’s political agenda with a fake human rights robe, which is the same approach undertaken by the National Human Rights Committee in Qatar.

On June 9, London-based Amnesty International issued a report titled “Families Torn and Freedom of Speech under Attack amidst the Political Conflict in the Gulf” which spread viciously like wild fire on media outlets. that are . The report, partially or wholly sponsored by the Qatari regime, was replete with professional and methodological fallacies which could have been caused by the report being hastily prepared in response to “some party’s” pressures.

Without sufficient time to write a well founded and methodologically coherent-at least form wise- story, the organization failed to provide a story convincing enough to shield itself from professional criticism that caused the report to crumble and revealed its frailty.

In reaction to the Qatari attempts, the question now remains which human rights approach should be taken by Arab regimes affected by the Qatari regime’s crimes to put an end to those crimes, and to force Doha’s ruling elite to change their course of action while respecting the choices of the nations in the region.

Though some have suggested resorting to the International Criminal Court for justice, but when probing deeper into this option two reasons highlight why it would fail: first, most Arab countries do not approve of the Roman origin of the court system and therefore useless against the Qatari regime; second, Qatar’s long-term investment in buying the loyalty of human rights activists stand as an obstacle in the way of mobilizing enough support for the cause. Based on this, there are only two alternatives that we can consider.

Using the role of Arab human rights organizations in monitoring and documenting the crimes of the Qatari regime may help to uncover how these regime’s actions overtly contradict with a number of human rights international instruments. Building upon this work, the organizations can present these crimes in the form of reports and testimonials to international human rights bodies and mechanisms, highlighting the behavior of the Qatari regime and its violations of the referred to instruments.

For example, the support that the Qatari regime has given over the past years to terrorist groups completely contradicts with the United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 1373 which used a strict tone towards organizations and countries supporting terrorism. The resolution contained explicit prohibitions forcing states not to show any explicit or implicit support to persons who are involved in terrorist crimes or offering safe refuge to those who commit, sponsor, or support terrorist acts.

In addition, the behavior of the rulers of Doha contradicts with the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, Resolution 54/109, approved and signed by the General Assembly of the UN on December 9, 1999 ; the convention incriminates all forms of funding terrorism and invites countries to change their legislative procedures according to their laws.

Also of note is the regime’s lack of adherence to the “Effects of terrorism on the enjoyment of human rights” document that came to light in session 28 of the UN Human Rights Council. This decree openly urges all countries to disapprove of all forms of support given to terrorists and to refuse to offer safe refuges to them or to those who instigate terrorist crimes.

The UN has mechanisms for protecting human rights, such as the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which allows independent Arab organizations and even official governmental delegations to formally present to the council, expose the Qatari regime’s human rights violations and demand that such violations stop.

In accordance with this mechanism, which Qatar will be obligated to follow starting April 2019, non-governmental organizations and national Arab organizations have the right to present testimonials to the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNHCR) revealing Qatar’s human rights violations, whether it be outside of Qatari land or not.

The key element is that testimonials must show how actions like supporting and funding terrorist groups undermines the rights of life, safety and development, and destroys the right of nations to decide their own fate. The mechanism also allows official Arab delegations to present specific recommendations to the Qatari government such as demanding that it stops practices that violate the values of human rights. All of these actions would actively contribute in exposing and uncovering the crimes of Qatar’s rulers to the whole world, including Arab nations and Qatar itself.

As a second alternative, one can rely on the mechanisms established through the Arab Charter on Human Rights (ACHR) and the Arab Commission for Human Rights. Both entities are responsible for ensuring Arab states’ commitment to the ACHR, especially the second article in the Charter that states the right to decide one’s own fate. It clearly declares the right to live under national dominion and land unity, the very same aspects that the Qatari regime has sought to take down in many Arab countries through supporting terrorist groups and armed militias.

Moreover, Doha’s behavior contradicts with the rulings of article number 37 of the Charter which asserts the importance of cooperation and solidarity among Arab states in seeking the rights to economic, social, cultural and political development; Doha supports and sponsors groups which violate all such rights. From here we see that taking actions based on Arab human rights mechanisms and under the umbrella of the Arab League seems logical and necessary to deter the Qatari regime.

In our battle against the Qatari regime’s unethical practices, we must use all the tools and mechanisms which the matrix of national, regional and international organizations for human rights provides. The sole purpose of this matrix remains to comprehensively defend the human values that the world paid a humongous toll to achieve, and it is unacceptable to allow a politically amateur regime to use its huge financial surplus to trample on such values and to violate them every day.

Originally published in Arabic at Al seyasa al Dawleya Magazine