The UN Independent Expert on International Solidarity Obiora Okafor has praised the distinguished role played by the State of Qatar on United Nations unity, cohesion and global solidarity and addressing the challenges of climate change, asylum and migration.
During a press conference, Okafor expressed thanks and gratitude to the State of Qatar, which gave him the opportunity to visit as an official UN envoy and an independent expert in the field of human rights and international solidarity. He added that the State of Qatar gave the chance to a number of international experts and specialists and other international bodies to visit the country and has hosted many conferences in various fields, which confirms its prominent role in international solidarity and its significant contributions in this field.
He also highlighted Qatar’s positive global contribution to development and humanitarian aid and its support to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
He appreciated the initiatives of the State of Qatar in the fields of education around the world and the many important projects implemented by Qatar in this context for the benefit of millions of children, youth and communities around the world.
He also touched on the efforts of Education Above All, Teach a Child, Silatech and others, which contribute greatly to facilitating the work of the United Nations in the areas of their competence. In addition to the role of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy in the preparation and organization of 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which brings the world together.
He also highlighted Qatar’s constructive cooperation with international humanitarian organizations such as the Red Cross and the International Red Crescent and UN agencies and organizations such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
He also referred to Qatar’s achievements in the health, education and curriculum sectors and its contributions to human rights. He also thanked the State of Qatar for its achievements in human rights, which includes economic, cultural and social rights.
He said that during his current visit to the country, he met with senior officials in various ministries, institutions, different sectors, UN organizations and offices in Qatar and representatives of expatriate labor. During those meetings he discussed with them all these issues and said that all of them welcomed his visit to Doha, to learn about Qatar’s contributions to international solidarity and to understand the issues of human rights practices on the ground in Qatar as well as abroad. He said he was interested in learning how Qatar is addressing global challenges, such as migration and asylum, integrating human rights issues into its thinking and practices and contributing to the UN human rights methodology.
He spoke about the limitations of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, noting in this regard that Qatar launched last year the second phase of its national development strategy in line with its National Vision 2030.
He said that Qatar has great resources and capabilities and supports and develop its human resources, infrastructure and areas of the UN work in health and education and the development of the international agenda in this regard. It has also signed several international conventions related to this, which supports solidarity and international cohesion and addresses global challenges.
He noted Qatar’s interest in climate issues and where it hosted in 2012 the UN Climate Change Conference and its keenness to participate in these conferences.
In 2016, it signed the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and adopted several environmentally friendly projects, including greenhouse projects, desalination, clean gas and recycling projects and participated in the green house international initiative. He stressed that Qatar through more research and the use of modern technology can increase its efficiency in these areas, adding that all had implications for human rights, not only in Qatar but also around the world.
Addressing the migration challenge, Obiora C Okafor appreciated Qatar’s positive role in financing migration processes through the United Nations, or directly supporting and assisting countries in conflict in Africa or Asia, as well as enacting Political asylum law.
Okafor stressed that Qatar, which receives large numbers of migrant and migrant workers, has committed to develop contracts and agreements with the International Labor Organization to support these commitments, and enacted many laws and legislation in line with international human rights standards.
In this context, Okafor referred to the sponsorship system, organizing the entry and exit of expatriates and elections, increasing the minimum wage, establishing an expatriate labor fund, providing access to courts for abused workers, and establishing a committee to settle labor disputes and the significant improvement in these areas, saying that all of those were steps and initiatives that we appreciated and should be encouraged.
He also praised Qatar’s role in achieving world peace and its role as a successful mediator for peace and conflict resolution in many countries and regions such as Africa and the Middle East, considering this as Qatar’s solidarity with the world, encouraging and thanking Qatar for this role, because peace is very important for the fulfillment of human rights, he added.
During the press conference, Okafor made some remarks about some of what had been achieved saying that they would like to see additional improvements, with regard to domestic labor in terms of reducing working hours and granting them weekly leave provided by law, providing opportunities for changing jobs, and calling on companies and employers not to require workers to pay fees, as well as increasing the minimum wage for workers to a better level with more litigation facilities, thanking Qatar for setting up programs to protect workers’ rights.
The independent expert, on the other hand, stressed that the Gulf crisis has affected human rights in Qatar and in the blockade countries themselves, pointing in this regard to cases of separation between families and the violation of the rights to education, health, mobility, ownership, reunification and the exercise of freedom of worship, religion and safe family life, adding that nevertheless, Qatar has maintained its cohesion during the crisis and we thank Qatar for that.
He described his ten-day visit to Qatar and its results as fruitful, adding that he found great cooperation from all of the people he met in the governmental and non-governmental sectors, and he was allowed to meet those who wanted to meet him, including expatriate workers, noting that he would submit a detailed report on this visit to the United Nations in June 2020.
