The human rights council are constantly having heated arguments between delegates. A noticeable audience has gathered because almost every position paper has many delegates in favour and against. The main issue at hand is the rights of migrant workers in the Middle East. Some delegates are suggesting that new committees should be created to protect the workers while others are in favour of getting the existing committees to be put under pressure to enforce the laws on Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait.
The delegate of United Kingdom said that making a new committee in the GCC might be a solution to the problem, but the delegate got a negative response from the other delegates as they raised the question of biased support to some workers if it is a committee within the GCC. If a certain GCC country has more influence than another they may not listen to the committee or try to influence the decision. In the end an agreement was made that it should be an international committee that should govern the rights of the workers. Countries from the GCC should be forced to join the UN convention for treatment of workers.
All countries agreed on the fact that workers are humans and need to be treated like humans. The delegates of countries such as Egypt and Qatar emphasised on the fact that they should have equal rights as normal citizens, in the country they are going. This statement was not largely supported and most delegates said that it is the responsibility of the country they originate from to make sure that the workers are being treated equally. Countries also raised the issue of contract signing and the fact that it is the responsibility of the accommodating country to make sure that sponsors pay the workers what they promised them to pay when recruiting them.
Discussions in the Human Rights Council continue to be very interesting and we will keep you updated about the happening.
By: Amin Raza
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