Qatar’s and the wider Gulf region’s evolving human rights landscape provided the backdrop for a recent roundtable discussion organized by Hamad Bin Khalifa University’s (HBKU) College of Law.

Moderated by Dr. Eleni Polymenopoulou, Associate Professor, College of Law, Human Rights in Qatar and the Gulf Region: Recent Trends and the Way Forward featured a panel of esteemed legal and public policy experts who offered their perspectives on an array of issues that have shaped human rights law within Qatar and its neighbors in recent years.

Some of the topics explored within the context of regional human rights law included the three-and-a-half year long blockade of Qatar, the COVID-19 pandemic, and  proliferation of artificial intelligence across the Middle East and North Africa’s (MENA)  industrial sectors. The roundtable also highlighted the state of activism and national human rights institutions around the region.

The panel featured HBKU’s Dr. Barry Solaiman, Assistant Professor, College of Law, and Andreas Rechkemmer, Professor, College of Public Policy, as well as internationally renowned academics David Keane, Assistant Professor in Law, School of Law and Government, Dublin City University, and Tenia Kyriazi, Professor of Legal Education, School of Law, Middlesex University, Dubai.

“Legal practitioners in the MENA region who work in human rights face an increasingly dynamic landscape shaped by socio-political events that present obstacles and opportunities. The roundtable underlined the College’s commitment to addressing today’s legal challenges with a future-oriented view and an appreciation of the sweeping effect of technological developments,” said Dr. Susan L Karamanian, Dean, College of Law.

Situated at a global crossroad of culture, business, and geopolitics, the College of Law hosts internationally recognized faculty that bring substantial expertise to contemporary legal issues of profound relevance to Qatar, the region, and beyond.