Articles for Qatar

On May 17, 2019, the United Nations Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) adopted a draft report following the review of Qatar’s human rights record on May 15, 2019. The report contains 269 recommendations made by United Nations Member States to Qatar, related to a flawed counterterrorism framework, the situation of migrant workers, women’s rights, and restrictions to the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly. 

Counterterrorism framework 

(Geneva, May 24, 2018) – The UN Committee against Torture (CAT) has published its Concluding Observations on Qatar’s third periodic report following the state’s review on May 1 and 2, 2018.

On March 26, 2018, Alkarama submitted its shadow report ahead of Qatar’s upcoming review by the United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) during its 63rd Session in May 2018.

On September 11, 2017, Alkarama wrote to the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism (SCT) to bring to their attention the case of Mansoor Al Mansoori, a Qatari citizen who has been arbitrarily detained since August 15, 2017 by the State Security Services. Al Mansoori was presumably targeted because of his past activism, although he has long since abandoned all political activities.

On 24 May 2017, prominent human rights defender and co-founder of the Union for Human Rights, Mohamed Al Otaibi, was arrested at Doha International Airport while on his way to Norway. On 28 May 2017, he was extradited from Qatar to Saudi Arabia. Al Otaibi had fled to Qatar in March 2017 to escape prosecution for his peaceful activism and seek political asylum in Norway, which had granted him travel documents to allow him to apply for refugee status upon arrival.

On 17 December 2015, Qatari citizen Mohammad Meshab was arrested by the state security forces without a warrant and detained in prolonged solitary confinement until August 2016. Currently on trial, hearings are not being held in public and the principle of presumption of innocence has been violated.

Alkarama welcomes the release, on 15 March 2016, of Mohamed Al-Ajami, a Qatari poet who had been sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment for writing and reciting, in his home, a poem criticising Arab governments and praising the Tunisian revolution in 2010. Al-Ajami was arrested in 2011 and sentenced in 2013 to 15 years in prison for "inciting to overthrow the regime" and "insulting the Emir".

On 26 January 2016, the Sub-Committee on Accreditation (SCA) of the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (NHRIs) published its report recommending that the Qatari National Human Rights

On 20 October 2015, United Nations human rights experts urged the Qatari authorities to release Qatari poet Mohammed Al Ajami, who was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment for writing and reciting a poem, at home, criticising Arab governments and praising the Tunisian revolution in 2010.

On 16 July 2015, Alkarama submitted a report to the Sub-Committee on Accreditation (SCA) of the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (ICC-NHRI) on Qatar's National Hum