The permanent delegation of Qatar to the United Nations, organised a seminar on human rights violations resulting from the unprecedented siege on country under the title "The human rights dimension of the unprecedented siege on Qatar", on the sidelines of the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Saad al-Abdullah, director, international co-operation department of Qatar's National Human Rights Committee (NHRC), stressed the need of avoiding involvement of people in political crises and separating political crisis from humanitarian and rights issues.
He said that time is passing without reaching a solution to the crisis and ending the humanitarian violations, pointing to the other violations against families affected by the siege.
“NHRC had earlier monitored widespread violations of the right to private property as a result of unilateral measures against citizens of Qatar, and that more than 1,050 of those affected filed complaints with NHRC,” he said, adding that NHRC revealed that complaints of violations of the right to education by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain affected 919 students.
He called for lifting the siege and opening the land, air and sea borders for all students.
NHRC pointed out that the siege has affected all aspects of the social fabric of the region as families are separated, medical care is obstructed, education is paralysed, and expatriate workers are besieged, adding that the siege has also affected businessmen.
The seminar focused on two themes: human rights violations caused by the siege and media freedom and the threats thereto.
NCHR had earlier presented, in Qatar, the violations that affect all Qatari media workers and citizens. NHRC provided details of those violations, including threatens to Qatari and expatriate journalists working in Qatar, and citizens of the siege countries who are working in Qatari media (such as Al Jazeera), where they were forced to resign and leave Qatar within 48 hours.
The committee also revealed that 103 of the media workers were subjected to pressure and serious harassment, and that TV channels and newspapers in Qatar or those related to Qatar were prevented from performing its professional duties in the siege countries.
It also touched on the defamation campaigns that affected Al Jazeera Network and other Qatari media vehicles.
The participants in the seminar presented proposals for a peaceful means to solve the crisis and the illegal and unprecedented measures, through emphasising respect for human rights and the importance of freedom of expression in the region to foster a spirit of understanding and dialogue.
The participants also pointed out that the measures imposed by the siege countries on Qatar were unprecedented in times of peace and they constituted a flagrant violation of fundamental principles of international law, the Charter of the UN and the agreed international instruments, such as Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Declaration on the Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among states in accordance with the Charter of the UN, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Arab Charter on Human Rights.

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