By Fazeen Saleem
DOHA: The GCC states stand selective in ratifying and implementing International Human Rights Treaties, according to a new study released yesterday.
The general trend in the region is to ratify only chosen treaties and implement selected provisions. However, GCC states ratify treaties without any call by the United Nations, says a research on ‘The Domestic Effects of International Human Rights Treaty Ratification in the Member States of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf.’
“The GCC states don’t ratify all human rights treaties, they ratify some. Once they ratify, they have lots of reservations to how they will implement the treaties,” said Dr Basak Cali, Principal Investigator, at the launch of the research findings held at the InterContinental Hotel yesterday.
“We find at many incidents that GCC states ratify human rights treaties without any specific invitations from the UN. This tells us that ratification decisions really part of the domestic politics rather than an international encouragement,” she said. Dr Carli is also a professor at Koc University.
The two-year long research has studied about all GCC states and all UN treaties through 50 interviews, two workshops and 120 UN documents.
In its ten recommendations the research has suggested GCC states to build a track record of actions taken with respect to combatting trafficking and access to services, towards legal protection for other human rights and to clarify the status of international human rights treaty provisions in the domestic legal system.
UN treaties cover civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, as well as the rights of the child, women, persons with disabilities and migrant workers (ICCPR, ICESCR, CRC, CEDAW, CRPD and ICRMW). There are also special treaties focusing on torture (CAT and OP-CAT), racial discrimination and on the prohibition of enforced disappearances (ICERD and CED).
Another tendency among GCC states identified by the research is that they differ from the global trend of giving first preference to rectify treaties on civil and political rights.
“Civil and political rights, the second most ratified treaty in the world is the least approved treaty in the region, only Bahrain and Kuwait has signed the treaty. Qatar has committed to ratify it few months ago,” said Dr Cali.
“Migrant workers treaty has not been ratified by GCC states and same is the case with lots of other countries,” she added.
When a country ratifies a treaty, an individual can complain to the UN, if the state has not respected their obligation. This is called the individual right to petition.
“In the GCC first ever state which has accepted it (individual right to petition) is Saudi Arabia, with the convention regarding to persons with disabilities, Qatar has signed but not yet ratified,” said Dr Cali.
The research findings presented stem from the first comprehensive human rights law project that the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) has ever funded.
The research project is the collaborative effort of four academic institutions: Georgetown University Qatar (GU-Q), Koç University (Turkey), the University of Oxford (United Kingdom), and Qatar University.
Together with Dr Cali, Dr Mehran Kamrava, Professor and Director of the Center for International Regional Studies (CIRS) at GU-Q and Co-Lead Principal Investigator of the project, Dr Nazila Ghanea of Oxford University and Co-Principal Investigator of the project and Dr Yaser Khalaileh of Qatar University, who participated as a Principal Investigator have completed the study within two years.
The Pennsula
