Several human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, expressed concerns Monday over a “flawed” human rights assessment of Saudi Arabia’s FIFA 2034 World Cup bid.
The 11 organizations issued a joint communication including a list of concerns regarding the human rights assessment from AS&H Clifford Chance, a Saudi law firm. This assessment was published in July 2024 and has considerably supported the expected approval of Saudi Arabia as host of the FIFA 2034 World Cup in December of this year.
Amnesty International claims this assessment “contains no substantive discussion of extensive and relevant abuses in Saudi Arabia documented by multiple human rights organisations.” The first concern is over fears that the assessment purposely disregarded international human rights which Saudi Arabia has not recognized, or that the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) considers irrelevant. Saudi Arabia is not a signatory of several international human rights instruments, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Furthermore, Saudi Arabia has not signed the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
Other concerns include an allegedly selective presentation of findings and a lack of credible external stakeholders in the report. All this led to “an artificially limited, misleading and overly positive perspective, that serves only to whitewash the reality of abuse and discrimination faced by Saudi Arabia’s citizens and residents,” argues Julia Legner, Executive Director of ALQST for Human Rights, a Saudi Arabian organization.
Saudi Arabia has faced several accusations regarding various violations of human rights. Recently it failed to secure a seat in the UN Human Rights Council over rights concerns. Moreover, Amnesty International believes hosting the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia can pose serious risks to human rights. Steven Cockburn, head of labor rights at Amnesty International, claims that “without huge reforms, critics will be arrested, women and LGBT people will face discrimination, and workers will be exploited on a massive scale.” Furthermore, the joint communication argues for the possibility of AS&H Clifford Chance’s complicity with any potential human rights violations arising from a tournament in Saudi Arabia.
FIFA has yet to comment on the matter.
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