NHRC asks UAE to comply with ICJ decision and allow family unification

However, despite international appeals, and reports of international organisations documenting the violations, the UAE has failed to act, the human rights body said.

The committee said in a statement on Tuesday that it has been monitoring continued human rights violations by the UAE that contravened all international conventions, agreements, and norms and humanitarian principles.

“Mixed families continue to face an certain future, under critical circumstances which change the lives of thousands of families in the Gulf region, due to the severe restrictions imposed by the countries of the blockade on relations with the State of Qatar, leading to family dispersal, in the first place,” the statement said.

The committee noted that the most recent cases were the prevention of some family members from leaving the United Arab Emirates. It cited the case of Shaqraa Mohamed Obaid, an Emirati citizen who is married to Qatari citizen Fahd Abdullah Dhyiab. She left Qatar on January 23, 2019, with her two sons, Dhyiab and Abdullah (2 years and 4 months old, respectively) to visit her family in the UAE. “She is currently banned from leaving the UAE with her two children, in violation of her right to family reunification,” the NHRC said.

The National Human Rights Committee said it has documented 87 cases of violations of the right to family reunification following the issuance of the International Court of Justice order.

“The National Human Rights Committee of the State of Qatar calls on UAE authorities to comply with the International Court of Justice order No. 172 dated 23 July 2018 and to allow the UAE citizen and her two Qatari children to leave the UAE immediately,” the statement added.