(Beirut) – The FIFA World Cup, from November 20 to December 18, 2022, will be played after years of serious violations of human rights and migrant personnel in Qatar, Human Rights Watch said today, publishing a “Guide for Journalists” for bloodhounds. covering the Qatar World Cup.
The 42-page consultant, “Qatar: 2022 FIFA World Cup – Reporters’ Guide to Human Rights,” summarizes Human Rights Watch’s considerations related to Qatar’s arrangements for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and describes broader human rights coverage issues in the country. The consultant also outlines FIFA’s human rights policies and how football’s global governance framework can better address serious violations in Qatar and mitigate the damage.
“The World Cup attracts a lot of media attention and foreign enthusiasts, but the dark aspect of the tournament overshadows soccer,” said Minky Worden, global projects director at Human Rights Watch. “The legacy of the 2022 World Cup will count on whether Qatar works with FIFA to tackle the deaths and other abuses of the migrant staff who built the tournament, put in place recent labour reforms and human rights for all in Qatar, not just enthusiastic visitors and footballers. “
More than 1. 2 million foreign visitors to Qatar are expected to attend the 32-team tournament, as well as many government and world soccer leaders. Thousands of journalists will cover the occasion once every four years and billions of enthusiasts will watch it on television. FIFA and corporate sponsors will gain financial advantages and announce it widely.
FIFA awarded the games to Qatar in 2010, without any human rights due diligence and without ongoing situations related to the coverage of migrant staff that would be necessary to build the large infrastructure. discrimination faced by women, other LGBT people and others in Qatar. In 2017, FIFA followed a human rights policy, pledging to take “measures to publicize human rights coverage,” stating, “FIFA will take good enough measures for its coverage, adding through its influence with the competent authorities. “
FIFA is guilty not only of stadium staff, a minority of immigrants in general whose employers are subject to higher standards of operating conditions, but also of staff guilty of the structure and maintenance of tournament preparation and delivery projects, as well as transport and accommodation. safety, cleanliness and landscaping.
Despite repeated warnings from staff and civil society groups, FIFA has not imposed strict situations to protect staff and has a complacent facilitator of widespread abuses suffered by staff, adding illegal hiring fees, wage theft, injuries, and deaths, Human Rights Watch said. .
FIFA has a duty to identify and address such abuses in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which FIFA followed in its Statutes in 2016 and in its Human Rights Policy, followed in 2017. FIFA also has vast resources for the 2022 World Cup to generate more than $6 billion in revenue.
Major labour reforms introduced by the Qatari government came too late or were implemented too weakly for many employees to benefit.
In May, Human Rights Watch and other human rights organizations, industry unions, and fan teams pressured FIFA and the Qatari government in a joint open letter and crusade to offer redress for abuses suffered by workers, adding monetary reimbursements for wage theft or injuries. and the families of the deceased.
Qatar’s penal code criminalizes the entire bureaucracy of sexual relations outside marriage, with consequences of up to seven years in prison. If they are Muslim, they can also be sentenced to flogging or stoning. Women have been disproportionately prosecuted, as pregnancy serves as evidence. of the alleged crime, and reporting the rape can be considered as a confession. The police forget about women who report such violence, believing instead of men who claim it was consensual. woguy
Women are also required to provide a marriage certificate to access the safe bureaucracy of sexual and reproductive health care, in addition to sexually transmitted infections and post-exposure HIV prophylaxis, and do not have access to emergency contraception.
On November 7, the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, the organizing framework for the Qatar World Cup, told Human Rights Watch that it will provide shelters and clinics to provide psychological, medical, medical-legal, and legal assistance to victims of abuse during the World Cup. Cup.
On November 9, FIFA told Human Rights Watch that “FIFA is confident that women will have full access to medical care, adding all pregnancy-like care, regardless of cases and without asking questions about marital status. “The settlement also said that “FIFA has ensured that women who report rape or other forms of abuse will not face any questions or charges related to consensual extramarital sex imaginable and deserve not to worry about the repercussions in any form on this basis. “
In October, Human Rights Watch published the findings of a study that forces from the Ministry of Interior’s Qatari Department of Preventive Security arbitrarily arrested six LGBT people in Qatar and subjected them to poor remedies, as well as beatings and sexual harassment, in detention. As a precondition for their release, security forces demanded that transgender inmates attend conversion healing sessions at a government-sponsored “behavioral health” center. LGBT interviewees said their bad remedy took a stand in September, even as the government was under scrutiny. of the World Cup for its treatment of LGBT people. In November, an ambassador for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar described homosexuality as “mental damage” in a television interview.
“Qatar, FIFA and sponsors still have a chance to salvage the legacy of the tournament by addressing World Cup-related migrant rights violations and adopting reforms to improve coverage of women, other LGBT people and migrant teams, not just the World Cups even beyond. Journalists can help make sure those important issues come to light. “