The Qatar World Cup: The Importance Of Human Rights Due Diligence

• Published date: 27 January 2023
• Subject Matter: Government, Public Sector, Human Rights
• Law Firm: Gowling WLG
• Author: Mr Kieran Laird

The human rights issues around the 2022 World Cup dominated headlines in the run-up to the tournament. However, these slightly faded into the background amid the drama on the pitch. Now that the last goal has been scored and we have our new world champions, many will be starting to reflect on the controversy in the run-up.

In this article, we consider some of those issues and how they provide lessons on the importance of human rights due diligence for companies more generally.

Ever since FIFA's decision in 2010 to award Qatar the right to host the 2022 World Cup (a decision which itself attracted controversy) the spotlight has shone with increasing intensity on the human rights situation in the Gulf state.

Qatar embarked on a massive construction programme including several new stadiums to hold the matches, a new airport, a new metro system and a network of new roads to move people around, and around 100 new hotels to accommodate teams and fans.

The issues

Given the extent of that building programme, it is perhaps unsurprising that the major focus of criticism has been the treatment of workers in Qatar. The population of Qatar is quite small - around 1.6 million in December 2010. The current population is somewhere around 2.69 million. However, of that, only around 15% of the total population are citizens. The population comprises a huge proportion of migrant workers with the majority coming from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and the Philippines.

In common with many of its neighbours in the Gulf, Qatar used a kafala system of sponsorship for migrant workers. Under that system workers often had to pay large sums to secure jobs before travelling to the country, and could not bring their families with them. Once there, they were not allowed to change jobs or leave the country without the permission of their employers.

The level of control that employers exercised over their migrant workforce inevitably led to problems, with many workers complaining of excessive working hours, dangerous conditions, inadequate living conditions, confiscation of their passports and withholding of pay.

Following a number of critical reports of worker abuse and exploitation by Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), trades unions and human rights experts, the kafala system was abolished on paper in 2016 with other reforms to labour laws following from an agreement with the International Labour Organisation in 2017. A scheme was also set up to reimburse workers who had paid illegal...