7. A PROPOSED REMEDIATION PROGRAMME
Fully implementing and enforcing the pledges and commitments of both Qatar and FIFA would undoubtedly go a long way in improving the working and living conditions of migrant workers in Qatar. However, whilst welcome, they will not be enough to erase the past and continuing harm that followed FIFA’s 2010 decision to award the World Cup to Qatar without any conditions on ensuring workers’ rights are protected. Qatar and FIFA must now work to remediate all abuses, including past ones. In 2018, Qatar took some steps to remediate abuse of workers, especially of those who suffered wage theft, by improving their access to justice and compensation. However, while these mechanisms have improved access to remedy for some workers they are yet to prove their reliability to provide adequate and timely compensation for all affected workers. Additionally, they only cover issues of unpaid wages and accept claims within a year of an abuse, leaving unaddressed other labour abuses such as dangerous working conditions, recruitment fees and forced labour. Similarly, FIFA has taken some steps by committing to ensure “access to effective remedy” to Supreme Committee workers and workers engaged in the construction of, and provision of services for, FIFA World Cup sites. 224 However, the needs for reparation go well beyond this group of workers and include all workers that have been, are, or will be, engaged in World Cup-related construction and other services who suffered harm in the context or as a consequence of this work. 225 Redressing the large number of past, outstanding grievances suffered by all these workers as well as future ones in the run-up to and during the World Cup will require a targeted, coordinated and effective remediation programme. Ideally, all workers or their family members should have received adequate remedy by the time the World Cup begins, but this is extremely unlikely. For this reason, the remediation programme must last for as long as grievances remain outstanding, even if this is long after the tournament ends. 226 Bearing in mind that any remediation programme should be discussed and agreed through a consultative and participatory process that includes workers and reflects their views and expectations, Amnesty International suggests below some key principles for any such programme. 227 See FIFA’s Sustainability Strategy. Article 2.3 of the ICCPR; United Nations Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law. 226 This programme is suggested as a way of providing reparation to victims of labour rights abuses and not as a means of securing punishment. However, accountability and appropriate punishment of perpetrators of labour rights abuses must also be guaranteed, including by strengthening existing enforcement mechanisms. 227 For the centrality of rights holders in remediation schemes, see UN General Assembly, Report of the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, A/72/162, 18 July 2017, paras 18-25. See also UN Guiding Principles, Principle 31(h); OHCHR, Improving accountability and access to 224 225
PREDICTABLE AND PREVENTABLE WHY FIFA AND QATAR SHOULD REMEDY THE 2022 WORLD CUP ABUSES Amnesty International
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