The UAE to be taken to UN top court over human rights violations

The Qatari government has taken the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over continuing human rights violations against its citizens, Qatar News Agency reported.

According to the Qatar News Agency, Doha has also requested the ICJ to take urgent measures to protect Qatari citizens from further discrimination.

The move was made several months after the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt imposed a boycott on Qatar in June 2017, severing diplomatic and transport ties with the state.

Since then, the UAE enacted a series of measures that discriminate against Qataris, including expelling them from the UAE, prohibiting them from entering or passing through the UAE, ordering UAE nationals to leave Qatar, and closing UAE airspace and seaports to Qatar.

Qatar said it believed the actions were in violation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) - including discrimination on the basis of nationality - of which the UAE and Qatar are both signatories.