6. FIFA’S HUMAN RIGHTS RESPONSIBILITIES
FIFA’s responsibility to respect human rights stems primarily from the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UN Guiding Principles) and is independent of the responsibilities of other state or nonstate actors. This responsibility exists regardless of what states are doing to fulfil their own obligations to respect and protect human rights. 139 Under the UN Guiding Principles, FIFA also has a responsibility to remediate or cooperate in the remediation of abuses it causes or to which it contributes. 140
UN GUIDING PRINCIPLES As a business enterprise, FIFA has a responsibility to respect human rights. This responsibility is laid down in the UN Guiding Principles, as acknowledged in 2016 when FIFA formally adopted the UN Guiding Principles in its Statutes (see below). According to the UN Guiding Principles, FIFA’s responsibility to respect human rights requires that it: • •
avoids causing or contributing to adverse human rights impacts through its own activities and address such impacts when they occur; and seeks to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that are directly linked to its operations, products or services by business relationships, even if it has not contributed to those impacts. 141
Under the UN Guiding Principles, “business relationships” include “relationships with business partners, entities in its value chain, and any other non-State or State entity directly linked to its business operations, products or services.” 142 In the Qatar 2022 World Cup context, the responsibility for coordinating and managing all activities related to the preparation and delivery of the tournament rests on four key actors: FIFA; the Qatar 2022 Local Organising Committee; the Supreme Committee; and, since 2019, the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 limited liability company (Q22). 143 While Qatar’s Local Organising Committee and the Supreme Committee are FIFA’s key business relationships for the purposes of delivering the 2022 World Cup, hundreds of other entities involved in construction and services are also FIFA’s business relationships in the broader sense described by the UN Guiding Principles.
UN Guiding Principles, Commentary to Principle 11. The OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct also clarifies that “Enterprises retain responsibility to address adverse impacts that they cause or contribute to, even when operating in contexts where systemic issues are prevalent.” OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct, 2018, p. 75, http://mneguidelines.oecd.org/OECD-Due-Diligence-Guidance-forResponsible-Business-Conduct.pdf 140 UN Guiding Principles, Principle 22. 141 UN Guiding Principles, Principle 13. 142 UN Guiding Principles, Commentary to Principle 13. 143 See Box 1 for more details about the Qatar 2022 institutional set up. 139
PREDICTABLE AND PREVENTABLE WHY FIFA AND QATAR SHOULD REMEDY THE 2022 WORLD CUP ABUSES Amnesty International
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