Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons ends visit to Qatar with call on Government to do more to implement international obligations

Doha, 12 November -- The independent expert reporting to the United Nations Human Rights Council has urged the Government of Qatar to do more to implement its international obligations in the area of human trafficking. Speaking after a five-day visit to the country, Sigma Huda, Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, said she was pleased to note that national authorities were in the process of drafting an anti-trafficking law. She also cited the establishment of the Office of the National Coordinator on Human Trafficking and the creation of a shelter to accommodate victims of abuse and exploitation as positive developments. But she said more needed to be done to implement Qatar’s international obligations related to human trafficking, urging the Government to take prompt steps to ratify the Palermo Protocol on prevention, suppression and punishment of trafficking in persons, especially women and children.