Qatar filed a complaint under a UN anti-racism treaty against two of the countries which have been blockading it for a year, according to Gulf Times.
The Qatar government made the move as thousands of its citizens remain cut off from relatives and loved ones 12 months after a Saudi Arabia-led alliance launched a diplomatic and transport boycott.
Many of those affected are Qataris living in mixed marriages, who were expelled from blockading countries. In many cases, the Qataris were separated from their spouses and children.
A complaint against Saudi Arabia and the UAE has been handed in to the UN’s International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. If found to have violated the convention, the UAE could end up being reprimanded by the International Court of Justice.
But Saudi Arabia would escape censure because it opted out of article 22 of the convention, which means it can neither take another country to the ICJ, nor be taken to it.
No complaint was made against the other two blockading countries, Bahrain and Egypt.
A spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said: “We can confirm that the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has received an Inter-State complaint under article 11 of ICERD from Qatar against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.”
“When you’ve the mass expulsion of a population with people being removed on the basis of their nationality, ethnicity or race then you’re in the zone, you’re in the territory of the Convention,” said William Schabas, who is a Professor of International Law at Middlesex University.
The little-known Convention was set up 50 years ago but had only been used recently, first by Georgia and then Ukraine, both against Russia.
“After the committee, they can take it to the International Court of Justice, which is the world court, and it could make an authoritative ruling that could be very dramatic in an international law sense. It’s big-time shaming. This is something no state would like to happen to it,” added Schabas.
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