(New york) – Of Saudi Arabia World Cup BID fails to address widespread labor rights abuses in the country, Human Rights Watch said today.

FIFA, the international soccer body, will do that official certificate awarding the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia on December 11, 2024. FIFA a according to reports completed its evaluation of the Saudi bid. On July 29, the Saudi authorities DEPOSIT their”the offer book” alongside a Human rights strategy and one Independent evaluation of the contextwhat are the FIFA bidding requirements. All three documents blatantly ignore the well-documented risks facing workers, including forced labor. They also lack any analysis of enforcement gaps and do not include the perspectives of rights holders and other stakeholders outside of Saudi government officials.

“Saudi Arabia’s FIFA World Cup hosting documents ignore the country’s flagrant human rights violations, including inadequate thermal protectionUnchecked wage theftbanning unions and an abuse kafala (visa sponsorship) work system,” he said Minky Wordendirector of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch. “FIFA is willfully blind to the country’s human rights record, creating a decade of potentially appalling human rights abuses in preparation for the 2034 World Cup.”

Saudi Arabia’s hosting documents shed light on the huge scale of construction required for the tournament, including 11 new and renovated stadiums. Additional infrastructure to be built includes more than 185,000 new hotel rooms and the significant expansion of the airport, road, rail and bus network, as well as the mega-projects within Saudi Arabia. Vision 2030 plan, including the new luxury city NEOM.

By comparison, no new stadiums will be built for the 2026 World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico. Saudi Arabia’s massive infrastructure deficit will rest entirely on the backs of the migrant workers who build it. The country has 13.4 million migrant workers, according to the data the 2022 censusrepresenting 42 percent of the country’s population.

In June, the Building and Wood Workers International Union (BWI) DEPOSIT a forced labor complaint against Saudi Arabia at the International Labor Organization (ILO). The BWI complaint was based on cases of tens of thousands of workers with unpaid wages from two construction companies in Saudi Arabia and testimony from 193 migrant workers who faced a range of abuses. Violations included confiscation of identity documents, debt slavery and abusive working and living conditions, despite Saudi authorities. Claim of revisions to the Labor Law. BWIs complaint cites Saudi Arabia’s failure to implement several international treaties it has ratified, including the Forced Labor Convention and its 2014 protocol.

Despite the indispensable role of migrant workers for the 2034 World Cup, the government’s bid documents fail to significantly prioritize key labor protections.

The Independent context analysis commissioned by the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) in consultation with FIFA and run by law firm AS&H Clifford Chance is embarrassingly inadequate. The review itself acknowledges that they have not carried out due diligence on FIFA’s human rights policy and that the scope of reporting is limited to 22 human rights instruments selected by FIFA and the SAFF and what was “feasible within the time frame of the review and prescribed by FIFA. page limit.” This excludes core international human rights instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The bibliography also omits references to extensive published research on migrant worker rights abuses in Saudi Arabia and a major forced labor complaint against the country.

A coalition of 11 human rights monitoring organizations, including Human Rights Watch PLACED severe concerns about the Clifford Chance valuation in a letter warning FIFA and the law firm that they risk being linked to abuses in the preparations for the tournament. In response, the law firm said it would be “inappropriate” to offer any comment.

“Not a single migrant worker, victim of human rights crimes, torture survivor, women’s rights advocate imprisoned or Saudi civil society member was consulted for FIFA’s supposedly independent report,” Worden said. “FIFA’s treatment of Saudi Arabia’s bid is an abysmal failure to implement mandatory human rights risk assessments and protections for the millions of migrant workers who will make the 2034 World Cup possible.”

The other key offer documentThe “Human Rights Strategy in relation to the 2034 FIFA World Cup”, falsely refers to the Independent Context Analysis as a “robust human rights risk assessment” based on “robust engagement with relevant stakeholders in the Kingdom to review current policies and regulations. and identify important risks and gaps associated with preparing for and hosting the tournament.”

The authors clarify, however, that its analysis, over a six-week period, was based on research and engagement exclusively with Saudi authorities. Similarly, the Book of Saudi offers refers to Clifford Chance’s assessment as “focussed on the rights issues that are commonly associated with sporting mega-events, taking into account the commentary published by international monitoring bodies and supported by strong engagement with stakeholders in Saudi Arabia” .

The Human Rights Strategy also lists “additional initiatives”, such as developing frameworks for conducting supplier due diligence, as well as procurement and supply chain management that is not specific, concrete or limited in time. It does not mention fundamental labor rights such as freedom of association and collective bargaining. This lack of clarity reflects Saudi Arabia’s lack of preparedness to adequately protect workers in the high-risk environment of massive World Cup construction projects.

“It appears that these documents have been cooked together to create the impression that a serious assessment of the risks to human rights and labor rights has been made,” Worden said. “FIFA’s bogus assessment process to award the 2034 World Cup without legally binding human rights commitments is a repeat of this. irresponsible approach to building the World Cup in Qatar, which ultimately cost the lives of thousands of migrant workers.”

Human Rights Watch has ADVISED that FIFA is breaking its own human rights rules announcing a plan for hosting the next two men’s World Cups, which effectively eliminates bidding and human rights due diligence. The bidding process for the 2026 World Cup was supposed to include a human rights strategy and one independent assessmentwhich was based on consultations with dozens of human rights stakeholders. Human Rights Watch wrote to FIFA detailing concerns about the 2034 bid and informed sponsors including Coca-Cola, Adidas and AB InBev of flawed human rights risk assessments.

The bidding process for Qatar’s 2022 World Cup ignored rampant labor abuses, and in 2014 Qatar faced a forced labor complaint at the IOM. Human Rights Watch research has shown that despite subsequent reformsThe 2022 World Cup has left a legacy of unresolved abuses, including thousands of uncompensated deaths that have left lasting damage for migrant workers and families.

An independent review of FIFA’s human rights responsibilities towards workers who suffered injuries during the staging of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar has been commissioned but not published. At the request of Saudi Arabia, FIFA returned negotiated framework to protect labor and human rights in the organization of the 2026 World Cup.

Human rights risks are further magnified in the Saudi context because the stadium and infrastructure construction requirements are massive, the country is geographically much larger, and there are no independent human rights monitors or media.

“Without human rights due diligence and binding commitments from Saudi labor and human rights authorities, FIFA should not move forward with a vote to confirm Saudi Arabia as host of the 2034 World Cup,” Worden said .