Editor’s note:
Tomáš Grell holds an LL.M.
in Public International Law from Leiden University. He contributes to
the work of the ASSER International Sports Law Centre as a research
intern.
Concerns about adverse
human rights impacts related to FIFA's activities have intensified ever since its
late 2010 decision to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cup to Russia and Qatar
respectively. However, until recently, the world's governing body of football
had done little to eliminate these concerns, thereby encouraging human rights
advocates to exercise their critical eye on FIFA.
In response to growing
criticism, the Extraordinary FIFA Congress, held in February 2016, decided to include an explicit
human rights commitment in the revised FIFA Statutes which came into force in April 2016. This commitment
is encapsulated in Article 3 which reads as follows: ''FIFA is committed to respecting all internationally recognized human
rights and shall strive to promote the protection of these rights''. At
around the same time, Professor John Ruggie, the author of the United Nations Guiding
Principles on Business and Human Rights ('UN Guiding
Principles') presented in his report 25 specific recommendations for FIFA on how to
further embed respect for human rights across its global operations. While
praising the decision to make a human rights commitment part of the
organization's constituent document, Ruggie concluded that ''FIFA does not have yet adequate systems in
place enabling it to know and show that it respects human rights in practice''.[1]
With the 2018 World Cup
in Russia less than a year away, the time is ripe to look at whether Ruggie's
statement about FIFA's inability to respect human rights still holds true
today. This blog outlines the most salient human rights risks related to FIFA's
activities and offers a general overview of what the world's governing body of
football did over the past twelve months to mitigate these risks. Information
about FIFA's human rights activities is collected primarily from its Activity Update on Human Rights published alongside FIFA's Human Rights Policy in June 2017.
The most salient human rights risks
FIFA faces human rights
risks through its events, commercial subsidiaries and business partners, member
associations or other parties. This section identifies sources of human rights risks
that are most often associated with FIFA's activities.
Bidding and selection
Allegations of
corruption have cast a shadow over FIFA's decision to organize the 2018 and
2022 World Cup in Russia and Qatar respectively.[2] If
these allegations were proven to be true, it would be conceivable that financial
incentives provided by the successful candidates helped them not only to secure
the right to stage the tournament, but also to evade certain requirements, including
those related to human rights. As Ruggie puts it, ''lack of financial integrity […] is a foundational source of human
rights risks''.[3]
Moreover, in the past,
countries bidding to host FIFA's tournaments have not been required to present
a strategy addressing human rights risks that may arise in connection with the
tournament’s organization. This allowed Qatar to win the bidding contest for
the 2022 World Cup without explaining how it plans to protect migrant workers
from the adverse impacts of the kafala system. Another example is
Papua New Guinea that was awarded the 2016 U-20 Women's World Cup despite the
country's high rate of sexual violence against women.
Construction
FIFA delegates the
organization of the World Cup to the Local Organizing Committee ('LOC'), a
separate legal entity created by the government and the national football
association of the Host Country. The LOC is responsible, inter alia, for the delivery of World Cup-related infrastructure. In
order to meet their deadlines, contractors hired by the LOC may ignore safety
standards or force their employees to work overtime. Other reported practices
include, for instance, appalling living and working conditions, non-payment of
salaries, withholding identity documents or restrictions on the freedom of
association.
In March 2017,
Norwegian football magazine Josimar uncovered a series of human rights abuses faced by
North Korean men working at Zenit Arena
in Saint Petersburg. As recently as 14 June 2017, Human Rights Watch documented
the mistreatment of construction
workers at five other World
Cup stadium construction sites in Russia. As the situation in Qatar has not
been much better,[4] the Netherlands Trade
Union Confederation filed in December 2016 a lawsuit with the Commercial Court
of the Canton of Zürich, asking the court to find FIFA responsible for alleged
human rights violations of migrant workers. The court dismissed the lawsuit on
jurisdictional grounds in January 2017 (for a detailed analysis, see our blogs here and here).
Discrimination
Article 4 of the FIFA
Statutes prohibits ''discrimination of
any kind against a country, private person, or group of people on account of
race, skin colour, ethnic, national or social origin, gender, disability,
language, religion, political opinion or any other opinion, wealth, birth, or
any other status, sexual orientation or any other reason''. In practice,
FIFA must enforce this provision by taking further action to tackle issues such
as anti-gay legislation in countries where its tournaments are staged,
homophobic chants by fans or gender discrimination in the world of association football.
Players' rights
In January 2017, the
international players' association FIFPro published a Global Employment Report on working conditions in men's professional football.
Out of nearly 14,000 players interviewed, 41% reported having experienced
delayed salary payments over the past two seasons. Players who lodge a formal
complaint against their club put themselves at risk of being excluded from the
squad or subjected to violence and harassment. FIFPro strongly condemned these
practices and called upon FIFA to reform its Regulations on the Status and
Transfer of Players ('RSTP') to ''provide stronger
protections of players against material breaches of contracts by clubs''.[5] Another
issue that merits closer attention is human trafficking in football, especially
as it often involves minors.[6]
Other
In addition to the
above, FIFA could better address human rights abuses that may occur (i) in the
supply chains of its licensees; (ii) in the process of land acquisition for
stadiums and event-related infrastructure; or (iii) in connection with
event-related security measures.
Overview of the measures taken by
FIFA
First and foremost, FIFA strengthened its internal capacity to deal with
human rights risks. In 2016, FIFA established the Governance Committee which provides, via its Human Rights Working Group,
strategic guidance to the FIFA Council on human rights-related matters. At the operational
level, the overall responsibility for the implementation of FIFA's human rights
commitment rests with the Secretary General who delegates the day-to-day management of human
rights-related work to the Sustainability and Diversity Department. In
September 2016, FIFA employed a Human Rights Manager to work within this
department. Moreover, in March 2017, FIFA appointed an independent Human Rights Advisory Board with the view of accelerating its efforts to embed
respect for human rights. Composed of experts from the United Nations, trade
unions, civil society and business, the Advisory Board is scheduled to meet at
least twice a year. It has already contributed to the development of FIFA's
Human Rights Policy, a landmark document clarifying FIFA's approach to the
implementation of its human rights commitment in accordance with the UN Guiding
Principles.
The rest of this
section looks at the most significant steps taken by FIFA in each of the areas
outlined above.
Bidding and selection
The FIFA Council has
recently agreed that, as of the 2026 World Cup, human rights
requirements will feature in the bidding procedure. This is of paramount
importance as it means that countries failing to present an effective human
rights strategy should not be allowed to host the World Cup. In other words,
the protection of human rights will constitute a material factor in the bid
evaluation. Had such requirements existed at the time of the bidding procedure
for the 2022 World Cup, Qatar would arguably never have been selected.
The bidding procedure
for the 2026 World Cup, the first to feature 48 teams, is currently in an early stage, and therefore bidding
requirements are not yet available. The Host Country of the 2026 World Cup will
be announced in 2020 at the latest.
Construction
As part of the implementation of the Sustainability Strategy for the
2018 World Cup, FIFA and the Russia 2018
LOC have launched a Decent Work Monitoring System aimed at detecting non-compliance with labour
standards at World Cup stadium construction sites. Under this system, two-day
on-site inspections are conducted on a quarterly basis by the Klinsky Institute
of Labour Protection and Working Conditions, at times accompanied by the Building and Wood Workers' International ('BWI') and the Russian Building Workers Union
('RBWU').[7] After
each inspection, companies are provided with a report containing
recommendations for further improvement of working conditions. This report is
forwarded to FIFA and the Russia 2018 LOC, and, in cases where the health or
safety of workers are seriously threatened, also to the competent Russian
authorities. As of 14 June 2017, a total of 58 inspections have been carried
out.[8]
In Qatar, the Supreme Committee for Delivery and
Legacy ('Supreme Committee'),
an entity tasked with the delivery of World Cup-related infrastructure,[9]
has developed a comprehensive set of Workers' Welfare Standards ('WWS'). Inspired by international labour standards, the
WWS are mandatory for all contractors working on World Cup-related construction
projects. To see whether contractors are adhering to these standards, the
Supreme Committee has designed a four-tier monitoring system which comprises
due diligence conducted by the Supreme Committee, the British company Impactt
Ltd.,[10]
the Qatari Ministry of Labour and contractors themselves. As of February 2017,
the implementation of the WWS is further monitored via on-site inspections
carried out jointly by the Supreme Committee and the BWI.[11]
Discrimination
Establishment of the Anti-Discrimination Monitoring
System in May 2015 is
regarded as the most significant step taken by FIFA to combat discrimination in
the world of football. This system uses independent observers who are present
at matches identified as involving heightened risks of discriminatory
incidents. Based on the reports provided by these observers, FIFA may open disciplinary
proceedings and eventually impose sanctions on member associations. For
instance, several Latin American
associations have been sanctioned for homophobic chants by spectators during the 2018 World Cup
qualifying matches.
Internally, FIFA promotes
gender equality by requiring each of the six confederations to reserve at least
one seat in the FIFA Council for women.[12]
Players' rights
As far as the
protection of players' rights is concerned, FIFA informs that it has introduced
certain measures intended to preserve confidentiality of the data available in the
Transfer Matching System.[13] Furthermore,
on 1 March 2015, FIFA modified the RTSP so as to put in place 'fast-track'
proceedings for disputes concerning overdue payable claims (for a detailed
analysis, see our blogs here and here).[14]
Other
In addition to
contractors working on World Cup-related construction projects, other companies
having business relationships with FIFA are now required to strengthen their
human rights compliance. These include the suppliers of FIFA-licensed balls,
artificial turf and technology used in games. Before a license agreement is
entered into between FIFA and the supplier, FIFA must satisfy itself that both
the supplier and its manufacturer are in compliance with the World Federation of the
Sporting Goods Industry ('WFSGI') Code of Conduct, whose purpose is ''to guide WFSGI members in the standards and practices expected in the
workplaces that they operate or contract from''.[15] Should
FIFA-licensees cease to comply with the standards laid down in the WFSGI Code
of Conduct, FIFA may decide to withdraw its license.
Concluding Remarks
The aforementioned
report on human rights violations of World Cup-related construction workers in
Russia, published by Human Rights Watch in June 2017, came as a major setback
to the otherwise encouraging measures taken by FIFA in respect of human rights
compliance. This and similar reports demonstrate that FIFA's human rights
activities have not yet produced their desired effect. To increase the
efficiency of its human rights activities in the future, FIFA should probably engage
in a tougher discussion with the competent authorities of the Host Country. This
is important because event-related human rights abuses often flow from
inadequate domestic legislation and administrative practices of the Host
Country.[16] Examples from the past
show that FIFA is able to exert pressure on the future Host Country to modify
its domestic legislation when it is in the interest of FIFA's sponsors.[17] At
the risk of stating the obvious, it is hard to understand why FIFA's sponsors
should be prioritized over thousands of people facing human rights abuses in
connection with the organization of the World Cup. Thus, a lot will depend on
FIFA's amendment of the bidding requirements for the 2026 World Cup. Though it
may sound optimistic and far-fetched, if FIFA were to award the World Cup taking
into account human rights compliance of the potential Host Countries, it could
become a strong force in spreading the human rights gospel across the globe.
