U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk talks to the media during an end of year press conference, at the European headquarters of the United Nation in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. Credit: AP/Salvatore di Nolfi
GENEVA — Two days before FIFA confirms Saudi Arabia as the 2034 World Cup host, the United Nations’ top human rights official pledged Monday to try to ensure migrant labor standards are “properly respected” around the tournament.
Saudi Arabia is the only candidate and sure to win Wednesday when FIFA will ask an online meeting of its 211 member federations to award the 2034 hosting rights by acclaim without an itemized vote.
The oil-rich kingdom’s World Cup plan needs to build eight of the 15 promised stadiums from scratch, plus add 175,000 hotel rooms. It will rely heavily on migrant workers, often from South Asia, within a labor law framework that activist groups say does not protect them.
On Monday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said his organization in Geneva was not directly engaged by FIFA on World Cup issues.
“What we are involved in though is to make sure that indeed, in each and every major sporting event, human rights are part and parcel of the way that sports events are not only conceived but also conducted,” Türk said at a news conference on the eve of the UN’s annual Human Rights Day.
Critics of FIFA say a Saudi-hosted World Cup risks repeating rights abuses seen during a decade of similar preparations for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Allegations of widespread labor abuses in Saudi Arabia are already part of an investigation by the UN-backed International Labor Organization (ILO) after a formal complaint by trade unions. Two United States senators have cited human rights in urging FIFA to find a different host for its marquee men’s event that earns billions of dollars in profit for the soccer body.
Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, left, and FIFA President Gianni Infantino, stand for the anthem prior to the match between Russia and Saudi Arabia which opened the 2018 soccer World Cup at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow, Russia, on June 14, 2018. Credit: AP/Alexei Nikolsky
“Whatever the decision is, to whoever is going to organize it, we will provide precisely that type of advice to the organizers,” Türk, an Austrian lawyer, said. “That will include also, of course, the need to make sure that migrant labor standards are properly respected and all the various other human rights dimensions of major sporting events.”
FIFA has been criticized for not using its leverage ahead of the World Cup decision with Saudi Arabia, despite its president Gianni Infantino building close ties to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Saudi officials made some promises in a formal bid document to engage with the ILO and domestic agencies but not international groups like unions and rights groups that have limited or no access to work in the country.
Soccer’s world body praised the Saudi bid in a mandatory in-house evaluation published Nov. 30 and noted the 48-team, 104-game tournament offers “significant opportunities for positive human rights impact.”
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk talks to the media during an end of year press conference, at the European headquarters of the United Nation in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. Credit: AP/Salvatore di Nolfi
FIFA also acknowledged that Saudi Arabia must invest “significant effort and time” to comply with international standards, which were widely criticized this year at the United Nations Human Rights Council.
In their letter to Infantino in October, U.S. senators Ron Wyden and Dick Durbin — Democrats representing Oregon and Illinois, respectively — urged finding a 2034 host “with a record of upholding human rights.”
“The kingdom continues to torture dissidents, engage in extrajudicial killings, discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community, oppress women and religious minorities, exploit and abuse foreign workers, and restrict almost all political rights and civil liberties,” the letter said.
The FIFA decision to confirm Saudi Arabia on Wednesday will be combined with awarding the 2030 World Cup to Spain, Portugal and Morocco. That project gives one game each to Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, which was the original World Cup host in 1930.
By teaming up Europe, South America and Africa for 2030 — four years after North American neighbors the United States, Canada and Mexico are due to co-host in 2026 — FIFA was able in October last year to open an unexpected and fast-track 2034 contest limited to bidders from Asia or Oceania. That all-but ensured a Saudi win.
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