GOQ SQUEAMISH AFTER HELPING OPEN UN HUMAN RIGHTS

C O N F I D E N T I A L DOHA 000386 SIPDIS DHAKA FOR P/E E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/10/2019 TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM UN QA SUBJECT: GOQ SQUEAMISH AFTER HELPING OPEN UN HUMAN RIGHTS CENTER REF: DOHA 313 Classified By: Ambassador Joseph E. LeBaron for reasons 1.4 (b and d). -------------- (C) KEY POINTS -------------- -- The GOQ is concerned that foreign opposition leaders will seek to enter Qatar to file human rights complaints at the new UN Centre Human Rights Training and Documentation Center in Doha, according to told Acting Director Renauld Detalle. -- Detalle has held fast to the principle that the Center is UN territory and all should be able to enter. -- Detalle is also concerned that problems with the GOQ may arise over human rights complaints filed against Qatari citizens and businesses by expatriate laborers. -------------- (C) COMMENTS AND ANALYSIS -------------- -- Most of the human rights cases the Center will receive probably will concern the rights of expatriate workers, given the size of that population and the ongoing problems with trafficking in persons. -- Embassy anticipates that a "gentlemen's agreement" with the GOQ proposed by Detalle will channel these cases to local authorities so that the GOQ can handle them in a manner less likely to focus the public spotlight on Qatar's problems. -- The opening of the Human Rights Centre is another manifestation of Qatar's willingness to engage with the UN on social and cultural issues. It joins UNESCO, which also has an office in Doha. End Key Points and Comments and Analysis. ¶1. (SBU) On May 27, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay and MFA Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Ahmed bin Abdulla Al Mahmoud opened the Human Rights Training and Documentation Centre for South-West Asia and the Arab Region at a ceremony in Doha. Senior human rights professionals from the GOQ were also in attendance. ¶2. (C) The Centre will accept human rights complaints and also focus on three areas: translating key human rights documents into local languages and making them accessible to the public; training and awareness-building; and the organization of conferences. The Centre's acting director, Renauld Detalle, told Poloff Caudill in a June 4 conversation that the Centre hopes to partner with the Qatar National Library to make key human rights documents accessible to scholars and activists throughout the region and the world. ¶3. (SBU) At the opening ceremony, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Ahmed bin Abdulla Al-Mahmoud announced that the GOQ would donate USD 1 million to support the Centre. Detalle said that the GOQ was also covering the costs of setting up the Centre's headquarters, and that the opening was the culmination of a three-year negotiation between the UN and the GOQ. ¶4. (C) Detalle noted that in anticipation of the Centre's opening ceremony, the GOQ expressed concerns that opposition leaders from other countries would seek to enter Qatar to attend the ceremony, and later, to engage the Centre. Detalle said that he reminded the Qataris that the Centre would be a UN facility and that he would expect all persons admitted into Qatar to have access to it. He noted that no problems had arisen from discussions on the opening ceremony, and expressed his confidence that any future issues would be resolved amicably. ¶5. (C) Detalle anticipates that the Centre will receive many human rights complaints from workers, domestic servants, and religious groups in the coming months. He hopes to enter into a "gentlemen's agreement" with the GOQ under which the Centre will either refer the complaints to local authorities or refer them to the UN office in Geneva. He plans to caution the Qataris that referring them automatically to Geneva, or after an unsatisfactory resolution by local authorities, will result in a spike in the number of cases documented in UN reports. LeBaron