UN Authority Figures

UN General Assembly President: Qatar
Term begins September 13, 2011

Women's rights activist missing in Iran
Maryam Majd, a photojournalist and women's rights activist, campaigns for female football fans to be allowed to watch matches in stadiums. Friends fear she was arrested before bording a plane for Germany. (Guardian, June 22, 2011.)

Mission of the General Assembly:
"Article 13. The General Assembly shall initiate studies and make recommendations for the purpose of:
    a. promoting international co-operation in the political field and encouraging the progressive development of international law and its codification; b. promoting international co-operation in the economic, social, cultural, educational, and health fields, and assisting in the realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion." ("UN Charter")

Term of office: 2011-2012

Qatar's Record on "the realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion":
"The legal system allows leniency for a man found guilty of committing a so-called "honor" crime against a woman for perceived immodesty or deviant behavior...There is no law criminalizing domestic violence...The testimony of two women equals that of one man...Courts ordered corporal punishment (flogging) prescribed by interpretation of Sharia in cases of alcohol consumption and extramarital sex by Muslims...Arabic-language newspapers carried cartoons depicting offensive caricatures of Jews and Jewish symbols and editorial comparisons of Israeli leaders and Israel to Hitler and the Nazis. [They] drew no government response. In a January 2009 sermon on al-Jazeera, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi called for killing Jews "down to the very last one."...The law prohibits same-sex relations between men...The rights of noncitizen workers continued to be severely restricted...employers mistreated foreign domestic servants, predominantly those from South Asia, Indonesia, and the Philippines...Some cases involved rape and physical abuse." (US State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2010, Qatar)

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