Public Law Studies Quarterly

International Responsibility of Qatar for ‎‏"‏Interpretive Declarations‏"‏‎ ‎Issued Concerning the Trade Unions Provisions of International Human ‎Rights Covenants

Document Type : Article

Authors

Amirabbas Kiani 1
Farhad Talaie 2

1 MA. in International Law, Faculty of Law and Political Science, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran‎

2 Associate Prof. of International Law, Department of Public and International Law, Faculty of Law ‎and Political Science, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22059/jplsq.2025.380396.3577
Abstract
When Qatar joined the international human rights covenants, it applied reservations and interpretative declarations into a number of their provisions. In particular, the state issued, in its opinion, interpretative declarations to Article 8 of the Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and Article 22 of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, concerning the issue of trade unions freedom. According to the content of the declarations, Qatar will implement and interpret the latter provisions according to its labor law. These declarations were criticized by various international institutions including the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on the basis that they are reservations in nature and are in conflict with the subject and purpose of the covenants. The institutions considered the declarations as a breach of [the customary content] of Article 19 (c) of the 1969 Convention on the Law of Treaties and in a way, highlighted the matter of international responsibility arising from the Impermissible Reservation which is the subject of dispute. This article employs a descriptive-analytical approach to address the question of how to assess Qatar's international responsibility resulting from the issuing declarations to the trade unions provisions of Covenants. Considering international documents, jurisprudence, and doctrine, the present article concludes that the said declarations are reservations due to limiting the scope of implementation of the covenants and are impermissible due to their non-compliance with the subject and purpose of the covenants. These impermissible reservations entail Qatar's international responsibility due to the violation of the customary content of Article 19 (c) of the 1969 Convention, based on Article 1 of the State Responsibility Draft Articles of the International Law Commission.

Keywords

‎1969 Convention
‎International ‎Responsibility
Qatar
‎Reservation
Trade ‎Unions.‎
Subjects

  1. English

    1. A) Books
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    1. B) Chapters in Books
    2. Klabbers, J. (2004). On Human Rights Treaties, Contractual Conceptions and Reservations In: Ziemele, Inata. (ed) Reservations to Human Rights Treaties and the Vienna Convention Regime. Springer, 149-182.
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    1. C) Articles
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    1. D) Documents
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    1. E) Cases
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    9. Reservations to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Advisory Opinion, I.C.J. Reports, 1951.

     

    1. F) Reports
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    References in Persian:

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    1. B) Articles
    2. Abedini, A. (2024). Breach of the Obligation Arising from the Adoption of Inconsistent Domestic Law: Analysis of the Judgment of the International Court of Justice in the Case of Certain Iranian Assets. International Law Review, 41 (73), 11- 30 (In Persian).
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    8. Saalari, A. (2018). Equality and Non-Discrimination in Human Rights System. Journal of Legal Research, 17 (35), 145- 169 (In Persian).
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Public Law Studies Quarterly
Volume 55, Issue 2 - Serial Number 42
Summer 2025
Summer 2025
Pages 1455-1480

  • Receive Date 04 August 2024
  • Revise Date 09 December 2024
  • Accept Date 03 February 2025

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