Human rights follow-up

[qatarperegrine]

Practically every article in the online edition of today's Peninsula relates to the National Human Rights Committee report:

• Committees formed to study recommendations. I guess that's a good sign? More committees?
  
• QU refutes NHCR report, says that deaf students would be allowed to enroll if any ever applied. (I'm also thrilled to see that QU has a student organization devoted to human rights issues!)
  
• Imams urged to talk about maids' woes

The following aren't directly related to the report, but they illustrate some of the rights abuses the report discusses.

• Mother urges NHRC to help jailed son write school exam plus the stories of four other individuals who have recently approached the NHRC for help.
  
• Filipina domestic worker seeks asylum at embassy
  
• National accused of forcing maid into flesh trade
  
• 70 workers forced to evacuate labour camp
  
• State emerges as villian in love story
  
• And here is a representation of the usual Qatari concern about manual laborers: NIMBY!!!!!. Poor Qatari families, having to see your slave class. Boo hoo.

And, mostly unrelatedly, a shocking 85% of Qataris are unhappy with the work of Qatar's one democratic body, the Central Municipal Council.

Comments

[meshach.livejournal.com]

Man... those articles are depressing. I guess the only silver lining is that they finaly feel free to publish stories like this.

Do you think anything will change?

[qatar.livejournal.com]

In hopeful moments, I think that there have been changes even in the period of time I've lived here. The NHRC didn't used to be in the news on a daily basis, and now it is. The government didn't used to ask imams to preach about the immorality of abusing your maids, and now it does.

Even if no practical changes are made in the near future, I think this document shows that ideas are emerging in the Qatari noosphere that I, at least, had not seen there before. The committee completely buys into the specific human rights delineated in the UN Declaration of Human Rights, which I think is a huge step. It points out that many of Qatar's laws are blatantly unconstitutional, and idea I had never seen discussed before. It assumes that rehabilitation is the proper goal of incarceration, an idea Bilal Philips actively argues against, and it argues against gender inequality in custody disputes, which is based on sharia. I think that these things are significant.

Will Qatar's workers ever be treated like actual human beings? I'm not always so hopeful. :-/

Random topic:

[kit-ping.livejournal.com]

I ran across a website that creates personalized forms for overseas voters to request an absentee ballot. I'm going to guess that you already get your absentee ballot, responsible and social-conscious person that you are (witness the above links :) but feel free to pass it on to anyone you think could use it. Vote early, vote often! ;)

Vote from abroad.

Re: Random topic:

[qatar.livejournal.com]

Nifty!

We usually get a big stack of absentee ballots sent over here. It was problematic two years ago, though. For some stupid reason, Allegheny County decided not to send out ANY absentee ballots until the deadline for requesting them had passed, which was perilously close to election day. I'm sure it worked out fine for people having them mailed within the U.S., but since the mail to Qatar takes a couple weeks round trip, it left some of us voting at the very last minute. I'm still not totally sure if all our votes were counted (but isn't that always true?).

[materjibrail.livejournal.com]

The Filipina maid depressed me. She has twin girls, 11 years old, and a son 13. She worked in Hong Kong for 10 years, with no complaints,to support them back home. Now she is in Qatar and not even getting paid. I get mad at the kids' dad, if alive, the good employers, the bad employers and the whole rotten sysytem of financial slavery world wide that splits up families. (And then I think of Mexico). Could I have left my kids? Could I see them starve? Could I see them grow up to live the life of this maid as their best option?

[qatar.livejournal.com]

It's a depressingly common story.

[seetarkrun.livejournal.com]

85%?? Wow... that's even worse than the 75% of Americans that disapprove of the U.S. Congress.