(MENAFN- The Peninsula) QNA
Berlin: Chairman of the National Human Rights Council (NHRC) Ali bin Sumaikh Al Marri held a number of meetings at the level of German Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions which focused on the siege laid on the State of Qatar and the negative impact it had on human rights in the region.
Al Marri held two separate meetings with German Foreign Office's Director for the relations with the Middle East and North Africa Philipp Ackerman, and Desk Officer at the Human Rights and Gender Issues Division at the German Federal Foreign Office Yasemin Pamuk. The two meetings dealt with the regional humanitarian impacts of the siege laid by three GCC countries.
The Chairman of the NHRC also met with Chairperson Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions Beate Rudolf and provided her with a detailed explanation over the human rights violations that Qatari and GCC citizens residing in Qatar suffered from. Al Marri also highlighted the severe violations to international law that the countries laying siege have made in their demands.
Al Marri expressed his worry to Rudolf over the possibility of further humanitarian violations after the countries threatened with more sanctions against the Qatari people and the GCC people in general. He warned that television channels belonging to the countries laying the siege that incite and call for conducting terrorist attacks that target the State of Qatar and its citizens in blatant undermining of counter-terrorism laws and related international agreements.
Al Marri noted that complaints of people affected by the siege are increasing constantly, highlighting that the violations affected the right to freedom of movement, residence and the right to reunion. It also affected the right to property, access to education, health, as well as the freedom of religious practice. Al Marri said that those violations impacted citizens of the countries laying the siege. He noted that the arbitrary measures following the siege have affected the lives of 11,487 people of their citizens residing in Qatar.
As for the freedom of expression, Al Marri noted that international organisations have condemned the countries enforcing the siege for their violation of that right. He added that many organisations, led by Office of the UNHCR.
All those organisations stressed that the insistence on closing Al Jazeera is a threat to freedom of opinion and expression.
Rudolf praised the role the NHRC is playing in the crisis.
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