Schlagwort: Amnesty International

• Almost three-quarters (73%) polled across 15 countries support proposal that FIFA use World Cup revenues to compensate workers who suffered in the preparation of the tournament  
• More than two-thirds (67%) want their national Football Associations to speak out publicly about the human rights issues associated with the 2022 Qatar World Cup 
• FIFA should establish remediation programme before World Cup kick-off on 20 November 2022

A new global poll commissioned by Amnesty International has revealed that almost three-quarters (73%) of adults in the countries surveyed would support FIFA compensating migrant workers who suffered during preparations for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Support is even higher among those likely to watch at least one game at the tournament (84%). 

The YouGov poll, which surveyed more than 17,000 adults across 15 countries, also showed that an overwhelming majority (67%) want their national Football Associations to speak out publicly about the human rights issues associated with the 2022 Qatar World Cup, including in support of compensation for migrant workers. 

“These findings send a clear message to football’s leadership. Across the globe, people are united in their desire to see FIFA step up and make amends for the suffering endured by migrant workers in Qatar. They also want to see their national associations take a much firmer stance,” said Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s Head of Economic and Social Justice. 

“With less than 50 days until kick off, the clock is ticking. But there is still time for FIFA to do the right thing. Supporters don’t want a World Cup that’s indelibly tainted by human rights abuses. The past cannot be undone, but a compensation programme is a clear and simple way that FIFA and Qatar can provide at least some measure of redress to the hundreds of thousands of workers who made this tournament possible.” 

The findings back the #PayUpFIFA campaign launched by a coalition of human rights organizations—including Amnesty International—fans groups and trade unions in May 2022, which calls on FIFA to set aside a fund to compensate workers and prevent future abuses. The coalition demands FIFA sets aside a minimum of $440 million for the fund – the equivalent it hands out in prize money at the World Cup. FIFA will make an estimated $6 billion in revenues from the tournament. 

Following the launch of the campaign, FIFA has told Amnesty International they are considering the proposal but have issued no public response to date.

The #PayUpFIFA campaign has also highlighted that national Football Associations have a responsibility under international human rights standards to support remedy for migrant workers given their participation in the World Cup. However, while the Belgian, Danish, Dutch, English, German, and Norwegian Football Associations have so far expressed support for the principle of compensation when asked by journalists, no Football Association has yet made an official public statement specifically calling on FIFA to establish such a remediation programme. 

Global support 

YouGov surveyed 17,477 adults in Argentina, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, UK, and the USA. Of these, 54% said they were likely to watch at least one game at the World Cup.  

Nearly three quarters (73%) of those surveyed—and 84% of those likely to watch at least one World Cup match—said they would support the proposal that FIFA use some of the money generated by the 2022 World Cup to compensate migrant workers who suffered in the preparation of the tournament. The strongest support came in Kenya, where 93% of respondents supported compensation. Thousands of Kenyans work in Qatar where Amnesty International has documented numerous abuses including forced labour of Kenyan security guards, construction workers and domestic workers. 

Support for compensation also exceeded three-quarters in 2026 World Cup co-hosts Mexico (86%), and also Spain (83%), Argentina (82%), Switzerland (81%), Finland (79%) and Belgium (77%), while support among likely World Cup viewers was even higher — above 80% in 11 of the 15 countries. Only 10% of those surveyed said they would oppose FIFA providing compensation, with the remaining 17% saying they did not know either way.

More than two-thirds (67%) of those surveyed also think their national Football Associations should speak out publicly about the human rights issues associated with the 2022 Qatar World Cup, including calling for compensation for migrant workers. Support is highest in Kenya (93%) and above 70% in Spain (74%), Finland (71%), Mexico (71%), France (70%), Norway (70%), Switzerland (70%) and UK (70%). Support was again higher (71%) among those likely to watch at least one game at the tournament. 

#PayUpFIFA 

Since 2010, when FIFA awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatar without requiring any improvement in labour protections, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers have faced human rights abuses while employed to build and service the stadiums, hotels, transport and other infrastructure necessary to host the tournament.  

Amnesty International is calling on FIFA and Qatar to set up a remediation programme with the full participation of workers, trade unions, the International Labour Organization and civil society. The programme should be established, and an initial meeting held between key stakeholders, before the tournament kicks off on 20 November 2022. 

As well as covering an array of compensation costs, including reimbursing unpaid wages, the extortionate recruitment fees paid by hundreds of thousands of workers, and compensation for injuries and deaths, the programme should also support initiatives to protect workers’ rights in the future.

Background

The full list of poll results is available here. 

FIFA’s response to Amnesty International’s report on remedy in May 2022 is included in the report’s Annex. The report was accompanied by an open letter to FIFA President Gianni Infantino from Amnesty International and a coalition of human rights organizations, unions, and fan groups. 

Since 2018, Qatar has introduced a series of important labour reforms that aim to improve workers’ rights, but the lack of enforcement means that serious abuses persist. Improvements for workers on official FIFA sites, such as stadiums, were also introduced in 2014 via the Supreme Committee’s Worker Welfare Standards, but these standards are not universally respected and only cover a minority of the hundreds of thousands of workers on World Cup-related projects.  

One positive initiative launched in 2018 by the Qatari body responsible for organizing the World Cup, the Supreme Committee, includes an agreement with contractors on official World Cup sites to reimburse the recruitment fees of 48,000 workers.  However, this agreement does not cover the hundreds of thousands of workers on other infrastructure projects, such as transport, utilities and hotels, essential to the World Cup. 

All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 17477 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 16 August – 6 September 2022. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all surveyed countries adults (aged 18+). 

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Today, the European Parliament holds a debate on a report showing that human rights have deteriorated in Hungary since the EU Parliament triggered Article 7 procedures against the country for serious breaches of EU values. Responding to the debate, Eve Geddie, Director of Amnesty International’s EU office, said:

“The alarm bell rung by the European Parliament echoes Amnesty International’s longstanding concerns about the human rights crisis in Hungary. In the four years since Article 7 was triggered, Hungary’s human rights record has only continued to deteriorate. Authorities have attacked the independence of the judiciary, refused to ratify a treaty protecting women from violence, passed homophobic and transphobic laws, cracked down on refugees and asylum seekers and suppressed freedom of expression and association. All of this must immediately be reversed.

“The European Parliament’s report, which is up for adoption tomorrow, kicks the door wide open for the Council to stop years of foot-dragging over Hungary’s relentless attacks on human rights and the rule of law.

“The EU must continue to use all political, legal and financial means available to stop the human rights backsliding in Hungary. The EU and its member states must not fall for cosmetic measures introduced in a rush to secure EU funds. Real change is needed to guarantee true respect for human rights and the rule of law, in line with the founding values of the EU. “

Background

On 12 September 2018, the European Parliament triggered Article 7, a mechanism to hold accountable governments whose actions threaten the European Union’s rule of law, human rights, and democratic principles.

The European Parliament’s report, expected to be adopted tomorrow, provides a concerning update on the human rights situation in Hungary and clear the way for the Council to take effective next steps. Such steps may include adopting specific, mandatory recommendations for the Hungarian authorities to implement by a set deadline and, absent any concrete steps toward compliance, work toward the required four-fifth vote to determine that there is a clear risk of a serious breach of the values protected by the EU treaty. Such a determination would open up the possibility to move towards sanctions such as the removal of voting rights, if the Council were to unanimously determine there is indeed a serious and persistent breach of these values.

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States engaging at the UN Human Rights Council must call on the Iranian authorities to stop concealing the mass graves of victims of the 1988 “prison massacres” and immediately open an international investigation into the extrajudicial execution and enforced disappearance of thousands of dissidents amounting to ongoing crimes against humanity, Amnesty International said today.

In recent months, Iranian authorities have erected fresh two-metre-high concrete walls months around the Khavaran mass graves outside Tehran where the remains of several hundred political dissidents executed in secret in 1988 are believed to be buried. The construction has sparked serious concerns that the authorities can more easily destroy or tamper with the mass grave site away from public view as the site is no longer visible from the outside and its entrance is guarded by security agents who only permit relatives to enter on certain days.

“The Iranian authorities cannot simply build a wall around a crime scene and think that all their crimes will be erased and forgotten. For 34 years, the authorities have systematically and deliberately concealed and destroyed key evidence that could be used to establish the truth about the scale of the extrajudicial executions carried out in 1988 and obtain justice and reparations for the victims and their families,” said Diana Eltahawy, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

“It should shock the conscience of humanity that thousands of political dissidents remain forcibly disappeared in Iran, while those who should be investigated for serious crimes under international law have risen to top executive and judicial positions where they continue to inflict suffering on relatives. This abomination must end once and for all, and the UN Human Rights Council must urgently establish an independent investigative mechanism to uncover the truth and as a step towards bringing those suspected of responsibility to justice.”

Five security cameras have also been erected both inside the Khavaran mass grave site and in the street outside to intimidate mourning families and deter members of the public from visiting the site to pay their respects.

The Khavaran mass graves lie in a grave site outside Iran that also contains several individual graves belonging to political dissidents executed in the early 1980s and Golestan Javid cemetery where the persecuted Baha’i minority bury their loved ones.

Amnesty International has reviewed photographs and video footage of the new walls and security cameras to corroborate the accounts of family members who have visited the Khavaran mass grave site since late May 2022.

The Iranian authorities cannot simply build a wall around a crime scene and think that all their crimes will be erased and forgotten.

Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International

For over three decades, the Iranian authorities have tried to cover up evidence of the prison massacres by repeatedly bulldozing over confirmed or suspected mass grave sites and destroying ad hoc grave markings and trees planted by families.

Relatives, survivors and human rights defenders have been consistently forbidden from gathering at mass grave sites to commemorate the victims and prevented from erecting memorials or laying flowers. Some have been prosecuted and jailed in reprisal for seeking truth and justice.

Some mass grave sites have even been turned into rubbish dumps. In April 2021, the Iranian authorities also pressured members of the persecuted Baha’i minority to bury their loved ones at the Khavaran mass grave site.

To further conceal the fate and whereabouts of the victims, the authorities have also refused to issue death certificates and removed victims’ names from burial records.

UN Human Rights Council must heed expert calls for an international investigation

In September 2020, a group of UN experts including the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), warned that past and ongoing violations related to the prison massacres in Iran in 1988 “may amount to crimes against humanity” and that they will call for an international investigation if these violations persist.

In August 2021, WGEID reiterated its concerns about the ongoing concealment of burial sites, recalled that the crime of enforced disappearance continues until the fate and whereabouts of the individuals concerned are established, and called for an international investigation.

“States engaging at the UN Human Rights Council have a moral obligation to stand with families, victims, and survivors of atrocities in Iran including the 1988 prison massacres and heed the calls of UN experts for the establishment of an international investigative mechanism. Members of the international community, including those involved in nuclear talks with Iran, must not shy away from speaking up for political gains. They should take concrete measures to tackle the ongoing crisis of systemic impunity in a country which has seen the rise to presidency of Ebrahim Raisi, who must be investigated for crimes against humanity,” said Diana Eltahawy.

Background

Not a single official has been brought to justice in Iran for the past and ongoing crimes against humanity linked to the 1988 “prison massacres”; and some of those involved hold or have held high positions of power in Iran. Iran’s current president and former head of the judiciary Ebrahim Raisi was a member of the “death commission” which carried out the enforced disappearance and extrajudicial execution of several thousand political dissidents in Evin and Gohardasht prisons near Tehran between late July and early September 1988.

Other members of the so-called “death commissions” who must be investigated for crimes against humanity include Alireza Avaei, who was the minister of justice from 2017 to 2021; Hossein Ali Nayyeri, who is the head of the Supreme Disciplinary Court for Judges; Mohammad Hossein Ahmadi, who is a current member of a key constitutional body; and Mostafa Pour Mohammadi, who was the minister of justice between 2013 and 2017 and is currently a senior advisor to the head of the judiciary. 

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The first report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan must serve as a wakeup call to the international community on the urgent need for establishment of an accountability mechanism to end the gross human rights violations by the Taliban in Afghanistan, said Amnesty International today as the Special Rapporteur presented his first report to the 51st session of the Human Rights Council.

We welcome the Special rapporteur’s report which is a critical addition to the existing documentation
of the ongoing crisis the people in
Afghanistan are facing.

Yamini Mishra, South Asia Regional Director at Amnesty International

“We welcome the Special rapporteur’s report which is a critical addition to the existing documentation of the ongoing crisis the people in Afghanistan are facing. The Special Rapporteur highlights the significant reversal of gains made in Afghanistan when it comes to women’s rights, girls’ education, protection of minorities, access to justice, freedom of expression and association among other critical rights. We are deeply concerned that these human rights violations and abuses continue with impunity in the absence of a mechanism to hold the Taliban de- facto authorities accountable,” said Yamini Mishra, South Asia Regional Director at Amnesty International.

Despite the promises made by the Taliban at the Doha Peace Negotiations and in subsequent announcements as they gained Afghanistan control in August 2021, the Taliban have not adhered to their own announced ‘general amnesty’. Enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, extra judiciary killings, revenge killings of different groups especially of former Afghan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF) and government officials, targeting of communities based on ethnic and religious identity such as Hazaras, and targeted killings of members of the National Resistance Front (NRF) and members of Islamic State of Khorasan Province (IS-KP) with near blanket impunity has continued in the last 12 months. These gross human rights violations are documented both by the Special Rapporteur and in independent investigations by Amnesty International which highlight the urgent need to investigate and prosecute the alleged perpetrators of these crimes.

“The Taliban have broken their promises to the people in Afghanistan and the international community time and again. Amnesty International emphasizes that the findings in the Special Rapporteur’s report on targeted killings, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and other human rights violations, particularly in Panjshir province against civilian population must serve as enough evidence to the member states at Human Rights Council to start time bound plans of actions to pressurize the Taliban de-facto authorities for an immediate end of these human rights abuses and violations,” said Yamini Mishra.

Amnesty International emphasizes that the findings in the Special Rapporteur’s report… must serve as enough evidence to the Human Rights Council
to start time bound plans of actions
to pressurize the Taliban for an immediate
end of the human rights abuses and violations.

Yamini Mishra

As member states meet today at Human Rights Council 51 session, over 850,000 girls above grade six in Afghanistan are being denied their right to education. As elders and communities in Paktia province decided to re-open secondary schools for girls, the Taliban de-facto authorities once again closed these schools, used violence against girl student protestors and detained journalists reporting the girl students’ protest. This is in addition to exclusion of women from work, traveling, political and public participation and much more. Musicians, artists and those associated with cultural sites are at risk too according to the report, despite assurances by the Taliban one year ago, that the country would not lapse into the violations of cultural rights that were seen twenty years ago. All of these have been documented by the Special Rapporteur as well as Amnesty international in its various reports in since the Taliban takeover on 15 August 2021.

Reports of shrinking civic space, arrest and beating of protestors including women, targeting of journalists and silencing of media which have also been documented by the Special Rapporteur, further underscores previous Amnesty documentation of these human rights violations in the country. This reflects the continued indifference of the Taliban to their legal obligations to respect and protect the rights of Afghan people under international human rights law.

The international community must seize the opportunity presented by the Special Rapporteur’s report to the human rights council and action upon his recommendations.

Yamini Mishra

“Afghanistan stands at crossroads one year after the Taliban forcibly took control of the country. The need for further supporting the mandate of the Special Rapporteur as well as the need for more concerted efforts to close the accountability gap is clear. The international community must seize the opportunity presented by the Special Rapporteur’s report to the human rights council and action upon his recommendations. Without an inclusive government and adequate legal frameworks, protections and institutions, the rights of the Afghan people will continue to be trampled upon,” said Yamini Mishra.

Background

Since the return of the Taliban to power in August 2021, there have been widespread human rights violations documented by Amnesty International including rights of minorities and women and girls, enforced disappearances, torture, unlawful killings and arbitrary arrests particularly in areas such as the Panjshir, attack on freedom of speech and expression and persecution of ethnic and religious minorities.

The Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan was appointed during the 49th session of the Human Rights Council in April 2022 and presented his first report on 12 September 2022 at the 51st session of the Human Rights Council.

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