A/HRC/45/16/Add.2 77. The Working Group was informed during its visit that a new law against terrorism was in the process of being adopted. Subsequently, in December 2019, Law No. 3 of 2004 was repealed and was replaced by Law No. 27 of 2019. Under article 23 of the new law, the Public Prosecutor may keep a suspect in detention following interrogation for terrorism offences for 15 days without bringing the suspect before a judicial authority. Under article 23, such detention may be extended by order of a competent court for up to 180 days. 78. The existing practices in Qatar of administrative detention under these two laws and the Protection of the Community Law are a serious affront to articles 9 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as the safeguards that would prevent arbitrary deprivation of liberty are removed and such detention is effectively placed outside the independent oversight of the judiciary. Without effective and independent oversight by the judiciary, detention is always arbitrary. The Working Group recalls the 2018 recommendation of the National Human Rights Committee to abolish these laws, and calls upon the Government to do so with utmost urgency. De facto deprivation of liberty by private actors 79. The Working Group received a number of reports of de facto deprivation of liberty by private actors in Qatar. 80. While article 189 of Law No. 22 of 2006 Promulgating “The Family Law” provides that everyone who has reached the age of 18 has full legal capacity unless placed under guardianship, the Working Group was informed that, in practice, women under the age of 25 must obtain the permission of their legal guardians, not only to engage in many regular daily activities, including the signing of contracts, but also to leave the country. The Working Group was informed that this prohibition on leaving extended to private residences, meaning that women were prevented from leaving their family homes without the permission of their legal guardians, resulting in de facto deprivation of liberty by their families. This is a breach of both article 12 and article 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and amounts to discrimination on the basis of gender. 81. Similar reports were received from the migrant worker community. Migrants were reportedly prevented from leaving the residences where they were employed as domestic workers, or had curfews imposed by their employers, which prohibited them from leaving their residences after a certain time in the evening. The Working Group received credible reports of employers withholding employees’ documents and salaries, as leverage to ensure that they would not leave. Reports were also received of employers resorting to false accusations of absconding, as a way of exerting control over their workers.14 Such complaints would automatically trigger arrest by the police, which in turn would result in the worker being detained for the time of the investigation. 82. These situations lead to de facto deprivation of liberty by private actors, which is neither stipulated in the national legislation nor permissible under international law. Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights bestows the right to personal liberty upon everyone and protects everyone against arbitrary deprivation of liberty. Every State that is a party to the Covenant, including Qatar, not only has a duty to ensure that anyone acting on its behalf, such as State authorities and its agents, do not infringe this right; it also has a positive obligation to protect everyone in its territory or under its jurisdiction from violations of this right by private parties. 83. The Working Group welcomes the steps taken by the Government to abolish the system of sponsorship of migrant workers, as a significant step in this direction, and acknowledges the central work done in this area by the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs. The Working Group invites the Government to double its efforts to equalize the relationship between employers and employees by, for example, enabling employees to renew ID cards themselves, and actively pursuing those employers who withhold the documents and salaries of their employees. The practice of imposing curfews in the domestic residences of workers should be abolished and all workers should be free to utilize their time off work as they choose. Workers must be allowed to leave their employers without the fear of being arrested for the so-called crime of absconding, and 14 14 CAT/C/QAT/CO/3, paras. 39–40; and CERD/C/QAT/CO/17-21, paras. 15–16.