Human rights in Qatar
Member State of the Arab League The state of human rights in Qatar is a concern for several non-governmental organisations, such as the Human Rights Watch (HRW), which reported in 2012 that hundreds of thousands of mostly South Asian migrant workers in construction in Qatar risk serious exploitation and abuse, sometimes amounting to forced labour.
[7][8] Sharia is applied to statutes pertaining to family law, inheritance, and several criminal acts (including adultery, robbery and murder).
According to the US State Department, expatriate workers from nations throughout Asia and parts of Africa are routinely subjected to forced labour and, in some instances, prostitution.
Most of these people voluntarily migrate to Qatar as low-skilled labourers or domestic servants, but are subsequently subjected to conditions indicative of involuntary servitude.
Some of the more common labour rights violations include beatings, withholding of payment, charging workers for benefits which are nominally the responsibility of the amir, severe restrictions on freedom of movement (such as the confiscation of passports, travel documents, or exit permits), arbitrary detention, threats of legal action, and sexual assault.
[33] A 2012 report by Human Rights Watch concluded that hundreds of thousands of mostly South Asian migrant workers in construction in Qatar risk serious exploitation and abuse, sometimes amounting to forced labour.
[34] In 2020, Human Rights Watch drafted out a report that claimed the nation’s initiatives in labor market by allowing migrant workers to change job without employer permission and setting a higher and non-discriminatory minimum wage.
[33] Domestic servants are particularly vulnerable to trafficking since they are isolated inside homes[33] and are not covered under the provisions of the labour law, but some reforms introduced in September 2020 extend to all workers, including those for ending employment contracts and changing jobs.
The project was launched after a recent scandal in Dubai's Labor camps, and aims to provide a reasonable standard of living as defined by the new Human Rights Legislation.
[needs update][42] Qatar Airways, the country's national airline, has long been criticised for its treatment of its lower level employees including flight attendants.
[48] This figure is denied by the Qatari authorities, who argue that it is misleading since it includes all causes of death in a population of close to one million and over an eight-year period.
[47] British law firm DLA Piper was instructed in 2012 by Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, President of Qatar Foundation, to undertake a review of migrant worker conditions.
According to the latest report drafted by ESPN, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said, “I am pleased to see the strong commitment from the Qatari authorities to ensure the reforms are fully implemented across labor market”.
Other offences include bonded labour, withholding of pay, restrictions on movement, arbitrary detention, and physical, mental, and sexual abuse.
[61][62] According to the "Trafficking in Persons" report by the U.S. State Department, men and women who are lured into Qatar by promises of high wages are often forced into underpaid labour.
The strategies included reporting its first forced labour conviction under the anti-trafficking law, identifying victims and referring them to care at the new trafficking shelter.
[67] In May 2014, Ali bin Samikh al-Marri, Chairman of Qatar's National Human Rights Committee (NHRC), said that Doha had officially announced the end of the current sponsorship system, and had passed a new law replacing it with a new one in which contracts are signed between the workers and their employers.
[68] In November 2017, the United Nations' International Labour Organization (ILO) praised Qatar's commitment to workers rights protection.
While stating that more needs to be done to protect the rights of Qatar's workers, Stephen Cockburn of Amnesty claimed that the Amir had taken an "important first step towards meeting the authorities' promise to fundamentally reform the exploitative sponsorship system".
[81] The International Labour Organization said "Qatar is the first country in the region to introduce a non-discriminatory minimum wage, which is a part of a series of historical reforms of the country's labour laws,"[82] The campaign group Migrant Rights said the new minimum wage was too low to meet migrant workers' need with Qatar's high cost of living.
The difference is due in part to the social allowances by government afforded to men as household heads, such as housing and travel allotments, which female employees are less likely to receive.
According to Najeeb al-Nuaimi, a criminal lawyer and former justice minister of Qatar, many women are able to avoid or be released from prison by marrying the father of their baby, at which point the woman is allowed to leave the country with her husband.
[97] In October 2020, several women who were boarding flights from Doha were taken away to undergo invasive gynaecological examinations, after an abandoned newborn baby had been found in the airport toilets and officials were searching for the mother in order to punish her.
[100] The fears concerning Noof Al Maadeed's safety heightened when she spoke of receiving threats on October 13 and mysteriously vanished after returning to Qatar from the UK.
[101] A source briefed on the situation told AFP that Qatari authorities were providing assistance to Maadeed, who was being cared for at a safe, undisclosed location.
[120] In July 2020, Qatar International Centre for Conciliation and Arbitration (QICCA) board member for International Relations Sheikh Dr Thani bin Ali al-Thani claimed that Qatar’s legislation and laws “highly support sophisticated media activity,” guarantee freedom of opinion and expression, press and media freedom.
[121] The Qatari government is keen to maintain things as they are, and are concerned about a change in its conservative cultural values, so there are few ways to achieve citizenship through naturalisation.
[126] In 2016, Polish Instagram star and model King Luxy was arrested and held for two months in Qatar for numerous charges, including extortion, blackmail, and cyber assault.
Foreign workers, and tourists, are free to affiliate with other faiths, i.e. Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Bahá'ís, as long as they are discreet and do not offend public order or morality.
One of its main missions is to prepare answers on the claims or reports of foreign countries and organisations on the situation of human rights inside the state.
