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Cameroon sports journalist Eyong Macdella Bessong assaulted over accreditation card dispute
Dakar, May 26, 2022–Cameroonian authorities must identify and hold to account the policeman who assaulted journalist Eyong Macdella Bessong while she was covering a May 18 football match in Buea, the capital of the Southwest Region, and should hold accountable the stadium official who manhandled her and asked police to remove her from the property, […]
Qatar: Joint letter to Gianni Infantino regarding remedy for labour abuses
Joint letter urging Mr Gianni Infantino, FIFA President, to work with the Qatar government, trade unions, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and other actors to establish a comprehensive programme to ensure all labour abuses to which FIFA contributed are remedied, and to set aside appropriate financial resources. View Report in English
FIFA: Time to Compensate Migrant Workers in Qatar
Qatar hit the headlines in December 2010 when football’s world governing body FIFA awarded it the right to host the 2022 men’s football World Cup, the first to be held in the Middle East. It was clear that a global event of this magnitude would mean Qatar would need to deploy immense resources and rely […]
FIFA: Pay for Harm to Qatar’s Migrant Workers
Global Coalition Calls for Financial Remedy for Deaths, Wage Theft (London) – Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers in Qatar have not received financial compensation or any other adequate remedy for serious labor abuses suffered while building and servicing infrastructure for the FIFA World Cup, which begins in November 2022, Human Rights Watch said today. On May […]
No ‘Dignity and Pride’ in World Cup Labor Abuses
FIFA Should Uphold Rights Responsibilities to Migrant Workers At a May 2 conference entitled “Managing the Beautiful Game,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino shockingly downplayed deaths and hardships of migrant workers in Qatar who have literally built the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In doing so, he reminded the world that preventable deaths and abuses of migrant workers in […]
Iranian Society Pushes for End to Stadium Ban
Women Have a Right to Attend Sporting Events Iranian authorities once again prevented women and girls from entering a sports stadium. Iran’s football team played Lebanon in a FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 qualifying match in the city of Mashhad last week. But authorities prevented dozens of women who had reportedly purchased tickets for from entering the stadium. Additionally, […]
FSE & CSHR Launch Fans’ Human Rights Guide
Like all people associated with sport, the human rights of fans should be upheld, and governments and institutions across the sports ecosystem, such as event organising committees, have responsibilities to protect and respect them. Promoting human rights is a job for everyone, and fans themselves also have responsibilities. Fans have a strong platform to contribute […]
Iran: Women Blocked From Entering Stadium
Possible Use of Excessive Force; FIFA Should Enforce Call to End Discriminatory Ban (Beirut) – Iranian authorities prevented dozens of Iranian women from entering Imam Reza football stadium in the city of Mashhad on March 29, 2022, possibly using excessive force, Human Rights Watch said today. FIFA should use its leverage with Iranian authorities to demand that […]
English Premier League: Urgently Adopt Human Rights Policy
Reconsider Newcastle United Sale to Saudi Consortium; Scrutinize Chelsea Sale Bidders (London) – The English Premier League should immediately adopt and implement human rights policies that would prohibit governments implicated in grave human rights abuses from securing stakes in Premier League clubs to whitewash their reputations, Human Rights Watch said today. The ban should be extended to […]
France: Prefecture of Police Tries to Suppress Women Footballers’ Protest against Lawmakers’ Latest Attempt to Undermine Muslim Women in Sport
An Administrative Tribunal appeal decision issued on 9 February overturned the Paris Prefecture of Police’s ban on a protest organised by women footballers, confirming that the protest should have been able to proceed as planned. The protest organizers had already called off the event in light of the police ban and the Tribunal’s ruling came […]
France: New Law Compels Reform of Football Policy that Discriminates against Muslim Women
On 24 February France adopted a new law aimed at democratising access to sports. A group of Senateurs ultimately failed in their repeated attempts to introduce a discriminatory amendment intended to prohibit women who choose to wear headscarves from participating in all sporting competitions and events organized by state-regulated sports federations and their associate organizations. […]
Sport & Rights Alliance Raises Concerns over FIFA’s Surprise Selection of UAE to Host 2021 Club World Cup
Gianni Infantino, President of FIFA, announced on Wednesday that the global football governing body has selected the United Arab Emirates to host the Club World Cup 2022. Since 2017, FIFA has made important progress in terms of its human rights responsibilities, including adopting policies that ensure a human rights risk assessment for host countries and […]