Al Ghufran Tribe Calls On OHCHR To Document Qatar Regime's Violations

(UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 21st Sep, 2018) GENEVA, 21st September 2018 (WAM) - The Al Ghufran tribe in Qatar has called on the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples of the Office of Human Rights Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to document the violations committed by the Qatari regime against them and to present them to the international community to hold the regime accountable.

Representatives of the Al Ghufran tribe said during a seminar, held in Geneva today, on the sidelines of the 39th session of the Human Rights Council that they sought the help of the international organisation, years after the Qatari regime ignored their crisis and revealed that the Qatari Human Rights Committee had been involved in conspiracy with the country’s regime.

In a statement before the seminar, a member of Al Ghufran said his tribe was subject to all inhumane forms of violation and was denied the simplest right in life by having their citizenship revoked.

"We only chose to go to international organisations and rights bodies after the Qatari regime closed all doors and rejected our demands. We are determined to make our voice heard in the whole world to regain our rights," he added.

Another member of the tribe called on the Qatari Human Rights Committee to stop turning a blind eye on the regime's violations against the tribe and to publish all these violations which are in contravention with all international laws and conventions. He said Qatari law defines the country’s indigenous people as those who have inhabited the country since 1940 and no one has the right to take away their nationality.

"Although the law clearly applies to us, the tribe members were forcibly displaced and deprived of education, healthcare and other basic services," he noted.

Al Ghufran tribe's participation in the seminar on human rights is part of a move to highlight the torture and suppression they had been subject to at the hands of the regime and a wider move by the tribe on the sidelines of the 39th session, currently being held in Geneva.

The tribe representatives ask the international community to take a decisive position against the Qatari regime for violation of international laws and convention by adopting a policy of racial discrimination against the Al Ghufran tribe.