Saudi Arabia's Human Rights Failures Ignored

Saudi Arabia's confirmation on Wednesday as the host of the 2034 FIFA World Cup has raised significant alarm with human rights groups, labor groups and activists, including some within the country.

FIFA's rating process saw Saudi Arabia's bid earn a record-high score of 419.8 out of a possible 500 and a record rating of 4.2 out of 5.

The human rights situation in the Middle Eastern country was rated as a "medium" risk by the world football governing body, despite several human rights organizations providing evidence contrary to that assertion directly to both FIFA and the Saudi authorities.

Lina al-Hathloul, the head of monitoring and advocacy at ALQST, a Saudi human rights organization, says that the world should not be distracted by a major tournament from the true situation in the country.

"You won't be able to hear real Saudi voices from inside the country because self-censorship has become the norm," she told DW. "Everyone knows that saying anything that could be seen as not even critical, but just not applauding the authorities, is enough to lead you to being jailed.

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"So it's very important to hear us, to listen to what we have to say, and to stand in solidarity with Saudi political prisoners and everyone who is a victim of the Saudi authorities."

Flawed 'independent' report on Saudi human rights risks
AS&H Clifford Chance, a joint venture between two law firms in Saudi Arabia, was hired to compile an independent report that informed FIFA's human rights assessment of the country.

The review was restricted to 22 international human rights instruments, chosen in agreement between FIFA and the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF).

Crucially, it excluded many human rights areas such as freedom of expression, enforced disappearances, and labor rights violations. Instead, the report relied heavily on Saudi Arabia's domestic laws as the basis for assessing human rights risks.

Those laws often fail to align with global human rights standards, particularly regarding women's rights, freedom of expression, LGBTQ rights and the treatment of migrant workers.

Al-Hathloul, whose sister was imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for campaigning for the right of women to drive vehicles, lamented both FIFA's and AS&H Clifford Chance's failure to directly consult any human rights groups while compiling the report.

"It's becoming a pattern to really not consult human rights organizations," she explained. "Importantly, human rights organizations are not allowed to access Saudi Arabia.

"So, for an institution like FIFA to do its due diligence, it's very difficult, and they should be contacting human rights organizations, who are unfortunately in the diaspora.

"ALQST is one of the only remaining organizations that really manages to get information from the ground, because even contacting human rights organizations is criminalized and considered a terrorist act."

FIFA responsibilities 'circumvented'
In 2016, FIFA adopted the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and included a responsibility to respect human rights in Article 3 of its statutes.

Praised at the time for being the first global sports body to commit to due diligence on human rights, it should have led FIFA to a process of identifying what the human rights risks would be for one of its tournaments and then ensuring it was clear how bidding countries would address those risks.

However, Stephen Cockburn, head of Labor Rights and Sport at Amnesty International, believes that the process for both the 2030 and 2034 World Cups, which both have had sole bidders, has allowed FIFA to circumvent its responsibilities.

"We have always said Saudi Arabia has the right to bid for a World Cup like everyone else," Cockburn said. "They also need to meet the human rights standards expected of other bidding countries as well.

"Analyzing the bidding documents and the human rights strategies put forward clearly shows they are deeply flawed. They fail to identify the risk. They fail to deal with them.

"In many ways, FIFA has colluded in that by engineering for single bids (for the 2030 and 2034 World Cups) from the start, there was no consultation and there are no real minimum standards set out.

"For us to see Saudi Arabia awarded a medium risk and that it got such a high score, we described it as an astonishing whitewash. Now we've got to keep working to push FIFA and to push Saudi Arabia on the ground. Otherwise, there will be real and massive human costs."

Migrant deaths reach close to 900
The number of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia is estimated at around 13.4 million. It is expected to rise steeply with plans to construct 11 new stadiums and refurbish four existing ones over the next 10 years.

According to government data collected by Human Rights Watch, 884 Bangladeshi migrant worker deaths were recorded between January and July this year — long before Saudi Arabia officially was awarded the right to host the 2034 World Cup.

There are few labor laws in Saudi Arabia, with no minimum wage for migrants. They are often saddled with recruitment fee debts from when they arrive.

Meanwhile, the country's continued adherence to the Kafala system, a visa-sponsorship system used in several Gulf countries, leaves migrants dependent on their sponsors, regardless of any abuses they may suffer. The system is notorious for giving sponsors, who could be companies or private citizens, near total control over the migrants' employment and immigration status.

Al-Hathloul wonders if the global outcry would be greater if the migrant workers dying in Saudi Arabia came from the West, rather than the Global South.

"What we want as Saudis is for you to stand in solidarity with us," she said. "If the labor workers' deaths included Western people, I think that we would have heard about it a lot more.

"I think that most countries would have voted no (to the bid) if the political prisoners were not necessarily Arabs and Saudis.

"We are asking you to hear us, to stand in solidarity with us, and to differentiate between the people and the authorities."

Saudi organizers play down human rights concerns
A DW request to the Saudi authorities for comment on criticism of its human rights record in connection with its World Cup bid went unanswered. However, in a recent interview with the Reuters news agency, Hammad Albalawi, head of the 2034 bid, deflected such concerns.

"We have come a long way and there's still a long way to go. Our principle is to develop something that is right for us," he said. "Our journey started in 2016, not because of the World Cup bid."

Others inside the country appear unfazed by the international criticism, with Salman Al-Ansari, a prominent Saudi political analyst, saying any issues will be forgotten once the tournament begins.

"The 2022 Qatar World Cup taught the world that accusations often fade while achievements endure," he told DW. "Saudi Arabia will use this opportunity to showcase its transformative journey, breaking stereotypes and uniting fans globally under the banner of sportsmanship and cultural exchange."