Qatar: NHRC chief calls for more press freedom

THE National Human Rights Committee has called for more press freedom in Qatar, saying it is suffering from “self-censorship”.

Talking to the Arrayah Arabic daily, National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) secretary general Dr Ali bin Simaikh al-Marri said the committee had called for a new law for greater freedom for the press.

“We realise that there is some sort of self-censorship by the editors of the local press,” he said.

Asked about the NHRC 2007 annual report on human rights in Qatar, al-Marri said it would be issued soon. “There is no delay in issuing it. It will be released in a few days and feature 1,500 complaints.”

Al-Marri dismissed as “untrue” allegations that the committee was more interested to polish Qatar’s image abroad than addressing peoples’ grievances. He said the allegations were irrelevant in the light of the NHRC annual reports which, he saw, as very critical of the government.

“I think that the two harsh annual reports (2005-2006) issued by the committee are the criteria in this point. Both included very harsh criticism of practices made by the authorities and called for correction.”

To a question on the government response to the recommendations made by the committee, al-Marri admitted that there was a drop in the government’s co-operation last year. He said the committee kept offering recommendations to the government about amending some laws to protect human rights in Qatar.

On the claims of “discrimination among inmates in the central jail” mentioned in the US Human Rights report on Qatar, he said the committee had not received any complaint about maltreatment or discrimination of any type.

About the draft of the sponsorship law, which has been published by the local dailies and seen as “unpromising”, he said the committee had recommended the cancellation of the exit permit and called for defining the cases of arbitrariness on the part of sponsors.

“We have already raised our recommendations to the government to address the problems of the current sponsorship law including the cancellation of the exit permit and the transfer of sponsorship,” he said, hoping that the recommendations would be considered in the final version of the law.

About difficulties put by the marriage committee for Qatari women seeking to get married to non-Qataris, he said that Qatari women should have full freedom of choice.

He also said that the Qatari citizenship had been returned to 95% of the 6,000 Qataris who had been denationalised a few years ago.

Date: 5 May 2008

Source: The Gulf Times