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Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). 86 In addition, the
government acceded to the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in
Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention
against Transnational Organized Crime (known as the Palermo Protocol) in 2009. 87 The
Palermo Protocol defines human trafficking as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer,
harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of
coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of
vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of
a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.” 88 The
government passed legislation criminalizing human trafficking, using the Palermo Protocol
definition of trafficking, in 2011. 89
Business and Human Rights Responsibilities
The longstanding concept that businesses have human rights responsibilities, reflected for
example in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in relation to the responsibilities of
“every organ of society,” has gained additional support and further articulation as a result
of work during the tenure of a UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights
from 2005 to 2011. In 2008, the UN Human Rights Council endorsed the “Protect, Respect
and Remedy” framework, which explicitly recognized a corporate responsibility to respect
all human rights, and in 2011 it approved the “Guiding Principles on Business and Human
Rights,” which offered guidelines specifying some of the steps businesses should follow in
order to implement their responsibilities. As laid out in those documents, businesses
should respect all human rights, avoid complicity in abuses, and adequately remedy them
86 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), adopted December 21, 1965, G.A.
Res. 2106 (XX), annex, 20 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 14) at 47, U.N. Doc. A/6014 (1966), 660 U.N.T.S. 195, entered into force
January 4, 1969, acceded to by Qatar on July 22, 1976; Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment (Convention against Torture), adopted December 10, 1984, G.A. res. 39/46, annex, 39 U.N. GAOR
Supp. (No. 51) at 197, U.N. Doc. A/39/51 (1984), entered into force June 26, 1987, acceded to by Qatar on January 11, 2000;
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted December 18, 1979, G.A. res.
34/180, 34 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 46) at 193, U.N. Doc. A/34/46, entered into force September 3, 1981, acceded to by Qatar
on April 29, 2009.
87 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (“Palermo Protocol”),
A/RES/55/25, adopted November 15, 2000, entry into force December 25, 2003, acceded to by Qatar on May 29, 2009,
available at: http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=IND&mtdsg_no=XVIII-12-a&chapter=18&lang=en (accessed
August 29, 2011).
88 Ibid.
89 Law No.15 of 2011 for combating trafficking in persons, on file with Human Rights Watch.
47 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JUNE 2012