Despite Poor Human Rights Record, Qatar Secures Seat on the UN Human Rights Council

Latest Developments

Despite its troubling human rights record, the United Nations General Assembly reelected the State of Qatar to the Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on October 9. Qatar, along with the 17 other nations elected this week to the 47-member body, will serve a three-year term beginning on January 1, 2025.

Qatar’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani said that securing a seat on the UNHRC “reflects international appreciation for Qatar’s firm commitment to protecting and promoting human rights at the national and international levels.”

In its 2023 Country Report on Human Rights, the U.S. State Department noted “significant human rights issues” in Qatar, including “credible reports” of abuses like “enforced disappearance,” “arbitrary arrest,” and “extensive gender-based violence.” Only 11 percent of Qatar’s 2.6 million residents enjoy full citizenship, while the remainder — mainly impoverished migrant workers from Asian and African countries — have few rights in a system branded by some human rights groups as a form of “apartheid” and “structural racism.”

Labor rights are of particular concern in Qatar. For example, the emirate exploited migrant workers as it prepared to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In November 2022, the European Parliament published a press release condemning “the deaths of thousands of migrant workers primarily in the construction sector who helped the country [Qatar] prepare for the tournament, as well as all those injured.” The press release likewise noted with concern “the abuse perpetrated by the country’s authorities on the LGBTQ+ community.”

A major backer of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, Qatar also remains a permissive jurisdiction for terror finance. In 2023, the Financial Action Task Force — an international money laundering and terror finance watchdog — found that Qatar “has not demonstrated that it is effectively identifying, investigating, or prosecuting” terror financing cases. On October 18, 2023 — less than two weeks  after Hamas’s October 7 assault on southern Israel — the U.S. Treasury sanctioned a Qatar-based terror financier named Muhammad Nasrallah who Treasury noted “was involved in the transfer of tens of millions of dollars to Hamas.” 

Expert Analysis

“The regime in Doha continues to play the system. A sponsor of terrorist groups and a proven violator of the human rights of its foreign workers, Qatar should never have been considered for this role. But the UN system is broken. The UNHRC is unfixable. And so, the embarrassments continue.” — Jonathan Schanzer, FDD Senior Vice President for Research

“It is hard to tell which is more disqualifying for the Human Rights Council: The fact that four out of the five regional slates were predetermined or that Qatar won in the one competitive slate. Evidently, 167 General Assembly countries view Qatar as an appropriate judge on human rights issues.” — David May, FDD Research Manager and Senior Research Analyst

Related Analysis

“Qatar Emir’s Speech at UN Showed Its Loyalty to Hamas; We Must Respond,” by Natalie Ecanow

“Is Qatar an ally or an enemy in the fight against terror finance?” by Natalie Ecanow

“Stop With the Nice Words on Qatar,” by Jonathan Schanzer

“The World Cup Spotlights Qatar’s Abuses,” FDD Flash Brief