A group of human rights advocating organisations have considered the complaint made against the National Human Rights Committee in Qatar (QNHRC) by the siege countries to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is purely political and has no relation to assessing the performance of the United Nations standards for national institutions.
This was stated in an open letter directed to Zeid Raad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and signed by number of human rights organisations including Free Voice Organization for the Defence of Human Rights - Paris; Swiss Organization for the Protection of Human Rights – Geneva; International Council for Justice, Equality and Peace – COJEP international – France; Association of Torture Victims in Tunisia – Geneva; Solidarity for Human Rights – Geneva; International Observatory for Societies and Sustainable Development – Tunis; International Coalition for Human Rights and Development – Geneva; Libya Watch – London.
They expressed their great concerns on the complaint filed by the Permanent Representatives of three Gulf countries imposing siege on Qatar and Egypt against NHRC requesting the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to withdraw the (A) rating from the Committee.
“We consider that this complaint is purely political and has no relation to assessing the performance of the United Nations standards for national institutions working in the field of human rights promotion; the Committee is full of regional and international activities and partnerships”.
The NHRC has “extensive partnerships with international organizations and with OHCHR, the United Nations Center for Documentation and Training, it organised several international conferences on human rights and several conferences on the protection of journalists and freedom of speech. The rating (A) is the highest rating in the Accreditation Committee of the International Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions, which is granted to national institutions working for the promotion of human rights, that is fully independent of governments and operate in accordance with the standards established by the UN.
