Qatar rejects appeals to respect Human Rights

The appalling lack of human rights in even the most liberal of Islamic States was highlighted this week when Qatar rejected the following recommendations made by member states of the Human Rights Council. Those not entitled to the full enjoyment of their human rights in Qatar include women, the children of mixed marriages, and–of course–homosexuals.

1. To continue to focus work on the rights of women and children, and to lift its reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women to guarantee fair and equal legislation (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland);
2. To consider withdrawing, as soon as possible, its reservation to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and to ensure that its national law and practice is in conformity with it (Norway);
3. To review its reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women with a view to withdrawing them, especially the reservation to the right of a child to obtain Qatari nationality from a Qatari women married to a foreign man (Netherlands);
4. To end discrimination against women by amending its legislation to guarantee women equal rights, in accordance with its international obligations, including with regard to marriage and divorce (Sweden);
5. To take legislative measures to eliminate discrimination against women, particularly in the area of marriage and divorce (Chile);
6. To ensure that LGBT persons are not discriminated against and, as an immediate step, to amend the provisions of the penal code criminalizing consensual sexual activity among persons of the same sex and to ensure that no one is punished for such activity under Sharia law (Sweden);
7. To consider establishing an official moratorium on the use of death penalty with a view to abolishing it, as provided by General Assembly resolutions 62/149and 63/168 (Slovenia);
8. To declare a moratorium on executions in line with the General Assembly resolutions 62/149 and 63/168 (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland);
9. To commute all death sentences and declare a moratorium on executions (Norway);
10. To consider abolishing the death penalty and corporal punishment, in particular against children (Brazil);
11. To establish a moratorium on capital punishment, commuting such crimes to sentences of deprivation of liberty; if not, to find a way to harmonize criminal and penal norms and laws with international human rights law (Spain);
12. To abolish stoning and flogging from its legislation, as mentioned by the Committee against Torture (Chile).

–Roy Brown, Head of IHEU Delegation to the United Nations, Geneva.