In support of the rule of law .. Opening of the conference to combat impunity in Doha

Emad Mourad - Doha

In a difficult circumstance witnessed by the world where narrow political and economic interests are a stumbling block to the rule of law, the preservation of rights and freedoms and the outcome of impunity, a conference of national, regional and international mechanisms to combat impunity and ensure accountability under international law opened in Doha on Sunday.

The conference, which was opened by Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani, appealed to the international community to uphold the principles of justice and to address crimes that violate human rights.

Addressing the opening session, President of Qatar's National Human Rights Committee Ali bin Samih al-Marri said that the presence of more than 250 international organizations and tribunals and representatives of some ministries, research centers and experts is the most important evidence of the importance the international community attaches to combating impunity.

Al-Marri called for the establishment of an international observatory for prevention, accountability, impunity, studies and advice, support of international governmental and non-governmental organizations and support for States in the development of legislation and mechanisms.

It was suggested that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the European Parliament be key members of the mechanism, and the United Nations Human Rights Council also called for the establishment of a special rapporteur on issues of impunity.

Al-Marri said that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to establish a task force to provide an assessment study on national, regional and international mechanisms to combat impunity and submitted to the United Nations.

He called on the international community to include terrorism and the blockade of peoples as a crime against humanity in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court of 1998, proposing an amendment to the Statute in accordance with article 121 of the same Statute.

Al-Marri expressed the hope that the conference will come out with recommendations to activate the mechanisms of international criminal justice and ensure the rights of victims to access the mechanisms of justice.

For her part, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet - in a video intervention - that the vast and diverse experiences dealt with by this conference based on the fact is undeniable, namely that achieving accountability and ending impunity must be a priority for the international community.

Bachelet has limited the issue of impunity in three aspects, the most important of which is to look at accountability in a comprehensive manner, as well as to examine the compatibility of accountability and prevention, and to address its root causes, which are often linked to systematic inequality and discrimination as well as social exclusion .

Khashoggi's crime
"The lack of accountability in the wake of the brutal killings of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and the Italian doctoral student Julio Regini in Cairo confirms that the scourge of impunity for violations, Grave human rights remain an issue in the present era.

He stressed that accountability is the soil on which peace can be rooted as sowing the seeds of reconciliation and reconciliation, stressing that the difficulty of finding common ground beyond ideological, cultural and religious divisions has led to destruction throughout human history.

For her part, the President of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions, Carlos Negrit Muskira, said that the responsibility to combat impunity lies not only with the bodies involved in the administration of justice, but also with the basic obligations of national human rights institutions that must act on due process, And the participation of victims in the process in fulfillment of their right to the truth and to ensure non-repetition.

NHRIs were independent institutions and were therefore able to provide their own information, which could be considered as a source of research, and could analyze cases of human rights violations when the level of impunity was high.

Following the opening session, participants at the conference signed a mural calling for an end to impunity with impunity and the need to enforce the rule of law and punish perpetrators.