Qatar files discrimination complaint at World Court against UAE

(Reuters) - Qatar on Monday officially filed a complaint at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court, arguing that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has violated the United Nations treaty that forbids racial discrimination.

Qatar asked the court to grant provisional measures barring the United Arab Emirates from various actions it says discriminate against Qataris in UAE, including limiting their freedom of speech and movement, inciting hatred against them, shutting down local offices of Qatar's state-funded Al Jazeera television station and blocking transmission of Qatari media outlets. http://bit.ly/2sNbA72

The court's registry confirmed it has received the complaint, the first step in a dispute which the court may hear.

Qatar cited violations of the 1966 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination as the basis for the court's jurisdiction.

UAE officials could not immediately be reached for comment late Monday.

The court typically will solicit opinions from both sides as to whether it has jurisdiction over a dispute before it considers the merits of a case, a process that often takes years. The ICJ is the UN's court for resolving disputes between nations.

(Reporting by Toby Sterling in Amsterdam and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; editing by Bill Berkrot)