HE the chairman of the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC), Dr Ali bin Sumaikh al-Marri, on Thursday called for immediate action to end the siege against the State of Qatar.
Al-Marri met officials at the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office on his fourth European tour.
He said that governments remaining neutral regarding the issue is a violation in itself of the rights of those affected by the siege.
He added that remaining neutral also is an encouragement for the siege countries to continue their act of collective punishment.
Al-Marri also stressed that the official report from the UN, which condemned the measures taken by the siege countries, should also be the signal that countries can no longer be neutral.
The chairman of NHRC also met the British Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa Alistair Burt, and Minister of State for the Commonwealth and the United Nations Tariq Mahmood Ahmed.
The meeting took place at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's main building.
Al-Marri handed the two UK ministers an official copy of the report of the United Nations technical mission of the Office of High Commissioner of Human Rights on their findings following the visit they made to the State of Qatar where they met more than 40 individuals and 20 governmental and non-governmental entities that were negatively impacted by the siege.
Al-Marri highlighted that the State of Qatar remains in contact with all international human rights organisations and encourages them to visit Doha to meet those affected directly, unlike the siege countries which continue to operate behind closed doors and prevent all international regulatory bodies and rights organisations from sending fact-finding missions on the implications of the seven-month siege.
He also expressed his appreciation to the efforts of the UN technical mission and called on the UK government to support the work of the Office of High Commissioner of Human Rights and implement its recommendations in order to end the humanitarian implications of the siege.
He also expressed his appreciation to the efforts of a delegation of UK MPs who visited Doha and issued a comprehensive report on their findings of the implications of the siege after meeting a number of those affected.
Al-Marri said that the UK government now has a legal and moral responsibility to end those unjust measures and support those affected.
He also gave a presentation on the suffering of citizens and residents of the State of Qatar as well as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain due to the continuation of the unjust blockade, while the governments of the world stand as spectator, or merely present verbal condemnations instead of exerting diplomatic, political and economic pressure on the blockade countries.
Al-Marri said that after an official report of the United Nations technical mission, it is no longer acceptable for governments to remain neutral because impartiality to human rights violations is a violation in itself, and this is encouraging these countries to continue their intransigence and impose collective punishment against thousands of citizens and residents of Qatar and the three Gulf states, because these are the real victims of the blockade, not the government of Qatar, as claimed by the three countries.
He stressed that the blockading countries, contrary to their media propaganda, continue to undermine the stability and unity of the social fabric of the Gulf region, because of its arbitrary measures that caused the separation of families, especially after Saudi Arabia's closure of the only border port linking Qatar to the world, as well as the broadcast of hate speech recorded in the report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
He concluded that the arbitrary approach of the blockading countries is not only a threat to the security and stability of the Gulf states, but also represents a real threat to the collective security system and to the unity of international cooperation in light of the threats facing the world and the exacerbation of crises in an area saturated with enough tension and unrest.
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