By Sarah Akbar
A FIFA-commissioned
report undertaken by Harvard professor John Ruggie and released on
April 14 urges soccer’s international governing body to ensure the protection
of human rights or consider moving the 2022 World Cup from Qatar. Ruggie, who
has created
business and human rights guiding principles for the United Nations,
noted numerous human rights violations surrounding the construction of new
Qatari stadiums and made a series of recommendations on how FIFA should
proceed. In particular, Ruggie proposes FIFA leverage its influence to press
countries to improve human rights conditions or face losing their hosting
privileges. FIFA officials, including President, Gianni Infantino, have
responded positively to the report, and have vowed to use it as a guide to
formulate its human rights policy.
By Craig Tarasoff
The 2022 World Cup is scheduled to be played in Qatar, but conditions underlying the necessary construction have been problematic to say the least. Migrant workers from Nepal, Sri Lanka, India, and Bangladesh are being paid low sums to perform incredibly dangerous work. They are not even able to go home without their employer’s permission. According to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), when the project is finished, an estimated 4,000 workers will have died the extreme working conditions. The ITUC has implored the British subcontractor responsible for parts of the construction that it is not enough to simply abide by the employee safety standards of Qatar's laws. Contractors have received over £200 billion in construction contracts in Qatar, and 790,000 petitioners have called upon these companies and the Qatari government to give basic rights to these workers. Read more about this situation at Independent.
