Qatar: UN experts gravely concerned about discrimination against the Bah'í religious minority

According to statements and documentation compiled by United Nations human rights mandate holders, the State of Qatar is carrying out systematic, state-sanctioned religious discrimination and administrative harassment directed at its resident Bah'í minority. UN human rights experts reported that members of this religious community have faced escalating persecution, encompassing blacklisting, arbitrary denial of employment permits, non-renewal of residency papers, and administrative expulsion from the country. UN monitors documented that long-term residents and community leaders, who have lived in Qatar for multiple generations without criminal records, are being targeted for deportations without judicial review, fair trial protections, or substantive justification. The UN findings assert that Qatari security authorities have sought to erase the institutional existence of the Bah'í community through the criminalization of peaceful religious gatherings, seizure of materials, and targeted arrests of senior spiritual representatives under overly broad public order statutes. UN experts reminded the Qatari government of its legal obligations under international conventions, emphasizing that discriminatory targeting based on religious belief directly violates freedom of conscience, assembly, and nondiscrimination guarantees codified in international law.