FIFA is expected to put $440 million into a fund for migrants as reparations for violations of the rights of workers who built, often at the cost of their lives, the World Cup facilities in Qatar.
Amnesty International and other humanitarian organizations made this request to FIFA a few months ago, a request reiterated by Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard, during her visit to Montreal for COP15 this week.
“FIFA is an extremely rich association. With the World Cup in Qatar, it will put in its coffers more than 7 billion dollars and it will give approximately $440 million to the winning teams. What we are asking is that she put in $440 million for the “migrant team”. They are not playing, but without them there would be no game,” she said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
The French, English, Belgian, German, Dutch and American football federations, in particular, have given their support to the creation of such a fund. According to the latest news, the Canadian federation was still getting its ears pulled. In France, Amnesty International has multiplied pressure gestures to get the French Football Federation (FFF) to add its voice to this call.
Too complicated ? It’s wrong
“FIFA says: it’s too complicated, we don’t know how to do it. It’s not true. There are many people who have looked into the matter and made concrete proposals as to how these funds could be allocated in a transparent and legitimate way,” says Ms. Callamard.
Amnesty International has not called for a boycott of the global sporting event, on the contrary, she explains. “For us, the World Cup has enormous potential for mobilization and campaigning. It allows us to highlight what is happening in Qatar. It also allows us to highlight FIFA’s responsibilities. »
Slight advances
“In Qatar, it allowed us to show that Qatari practices in relation to immigrant labor have resulted in probably thousands of World Cup-related deaths. At the very least, we know that hundreds of people have died as a result of working in the heat and there has been no investigation. That is the government’s responsibility to investigate. »
She also welcomes certain advances made by her organization and several others who have been putting pressure on the Qatari government for years, in particular the adoption of a new law for the protection of migrants that Qatar would probably not have adopted without international pressure.
“The benefits for migrants are still shoddy, but at least there has been a change. »
FIFA has a responsibility
Beyond Qatar, the secretary general of Amnesty International does not mince words about FIFA itself.
“FIFA did not ask for guarantees when it awarded the World Cup to Qatar. It did not ask for guarantees of protection of human rights and protection of workers’ rights and therefore its responsibility is engaged. »
“She needs to do her due diligence and she needs to acknowledge her responsibilities. So far, she hasn’t done that at all. […] Reading the positions, there is nevertheless a determination to refuse responsibility, either ethical or legal, and that is not acceptable. »
For Ms. Callamard, the portrait is defined as follows: “What is currently lacking are: 1- recognition by FIFA that it has ethical and legal responsibilities in terms of the protection of human rights; 2- that it asks for guarantees from any State to which it is going to award a World Cup on the protection of human rights, civil and political rights and economic and social rights, guarantees which must be part of the process of determining where the next World Cup will be played; 3- in cases where there is a proven violation linked either to the construction or the implementation of the World Cup, that FIFA provide remedies, including financial ones, to those whose rights have been violated by all these actors. It’s the state, of course, but it’s also FIFA as the sponsor of this activity. »
For her and her organization, it is important “to work on these issues because it is a space that is global, that presents many symbols in relation to the protection of human rights, whether sport or culture”.