THE HAGUE: Qatar on Wednesday said at the UN’s top court the UAE inflicted “maximum suffering” on Qataris as part of the blockade.
Doha said measures taken by Abu Dhabi after four states severed ties with Qatar in 2017 breached a UN treaty against racial discrimination. The two states are arguing this week before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague about whether the tribunal has the jurisdiction to deal with the case.
“The UAE seeks to avoid the jurisdiction of this court because it seeks to avoid the truth,” Mohammed Abdulaziz Al Khulaifi, representing Qatar, told the court. “This dispute is about the UAE’s punitive discriminatory measures, which are intended to bend the state of Qatar to the UAE’s political will by inflicting maximum suffering on the Qatari people.”
Qatar took the UAE to the ICJ in 2018, saying it had breached the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). “The UAE’s actions go to the very core of the evil the convention was designed to eradicate,” said Al Khulaifi.
The case has gone Qatar’s way so far, with the ICJ in 2018 ordering the UAE to take emergency measures to protect the rights of Qatari citizens. Doha has also won a separate but related case at the ICJ in July that is specifically about the air blockade.