Human Rights Watch criticized
Reform process in Qatar is ‘a disgrace’
10/20/2022 10:42 am
The controversial World Cup in Qatar starts in a month. Defenders of the event conjure up reform processes in the country that will be triggered when the World Cup is awarded. Human Rights Watch sees improvements – “mainly on paper” and “only sporadically”.
According to Wenzel Michalski, director of Human Rights Watch Germany, hosting the World Cup has not yet led to any significant reform processes in Qatar. He had to state “that it is a disgrace how slowly and insufficiently the reforms in Qatar are being pushed forward,” said the 59-year-old in an interview with the daily newspaper “Die Welt”.
There have been some improvements, but “mainly on paper” and “only sporadically”, Michalski criticized. There is still a lot of catching up to do when it comes to compensation payments for workers who died or were injured during the construction of the World Cup arenas: “According to the rules of the United Nations, FIFA, the government and the construction companies must compensate families whose relatives died or were injured on the construction sites. But so far, those responsible haven’t even batted an eyelid.”
“Sooner or later a kind of suicide”
FIFA had recently been a little more open to setting up a compensation fund, which DFB President Bernd Neuendorf had also called for. Qatar rejects the criticism of the handling of labor and human rights and itself refers to reforms. According to Qatari officials, there have been three fatal accidents at work on stadium construction sites. Media reports have been talking about significantly more for years.
Michalski doesn’t think much of a World Cup boycott, “because the players and athletes can’t help it where the event takes place”. The cardinal error had already happened when the World Cup was awarded. “It really pisses me off that this arrogant FIFA with their greedy management makes its living off the players’ backs.”
Awarding major sporting events to countries such as Qatar, China or Russia, which “treat human rights” and “put on an international propaganda show”, would damage the associations in the long term. “Sooner or later it’s a kind of suicide,” said Michalski.