Covering the World Cup
and Human Rights in Qatar
Articles related to the World Cup in Qatar, sports journalism, human rights and sportswashing
Learn more about - and register for - our discussion
about the Qatar World Cup, sports journalism and
human rights here.
Below are links to a selection of articles about human rights in Qatar and the men’s World Cup. The list is incomplete, and loosely organized. This is not a comprehensive look at everything written about the Qatar World Cup, journalism and human rights, let alone the range of issues in human rights and sport. But they do give a sense of what some leading voices are saying about the topic.
These are worth perusing before the event, and can help inform our conversation. We will also share links on the Project on Ethics in Political Communication website and social media.
From the Panel
Grant Wahl
World Cup host Qatar enacted new laws that it said would improve conditions for migrant workers. But are those laws being followed? We went to Qatar and spoke to workers at 14 FIFA hotels in Doha.
The Qatar Chronicles Part II: What are the U.S. Soccer Federation and U.S. players doing to address the treatment of migrant workers, LGBTQ rights and women's rights in the World Cup host nation? And is it enough?
Neha Vora
The World Cup and Immigration: Looking Ahead to Qatar 2022 (with Natalie Koch)
The 2022 World Cup and Migrants' Rights in Qatar: Racialised Labour Hierarchies and the Influence of Racial Capitalism, (with Zahra Babar)
From Groups and Organizations
Amnesty International
FIFA should match $440m World Cup prize money to fund major compensation programme for abused migrant workers
Human Rights Watch
FIFA World Cup: All Sponsors Should Back Remedies for Workers
International Trade Union Confederation
2014 Special Report - The case against Qatar
International Labour Organization (UN)
Progress report on the technical cooperation programme between the Government of Qatar and the ILO (2022)
Press Release on this Report: Four years of labour reforms in Qatar
From the Press
Reuters
Qatar World Cup ambassador says homosexuality is 'damage in the mind'
The Athletic
U.S. Soccer approaches Qatar World Cup with a focus on human rights issues
The Guardian
Qatar World Cup accused of imposing ‘chilling’ restrictions on media
Revealed: 6,500 migrant workers have died in Qatar since World Cup awarded
ESPN
World Cup: Denmark kit to protest Qatar's human rights record at 2022 tournament
ESPN The Daily
The Human Cost of Qatar’s World Cup
AP
Fox to avoid World Cup off-field controversy in Qatar
Doha News
Australia’s national team urges ‘lasting legacy’ in Qatar ahead of World Cup
Reuters
Exclusive: Thousands of workers evicted in Qatar's capital ahead of World Cup
Reuters
Qatar pays for fans’ flights and hotels for good PR
Sports Illustrated
What on Earth? How phony environmentalism came to sports
From Commentators
Marc Owen Jones
Well documented thread on the popular, and incorrect, claim 6,500 migrant workers have died building World Cup stadia.
Jones’ article in The New Arab with content analysis findings from UK press: How Western press coverage of Qatar World Cup 2022 descended into hypocrisy and orientalist caricatures
Sport Sensemaker - Paul Hayward
Qatar Parks the Bus
(registration required) Basically Qatar has said “enough criticism” and argued critics were using a double standard:
“The emir’s “double standards” reference is revealing. Qatar’s elite talk privately of a contradiction in the UK devouring petrodollars for Heathrow, Barclays, Sainsbury’s, the Olympic Village and Chelsea Barracks while recoiling at a sporting event being staged in a Gulf state with which it has deep ties.”
Hayward also notes the problems in Russia 2018 and Argentina 1978.
The New Republic
Will World Cup Reporters Let Qatar Get Away With Their Human Rights Abuses?
The Athletic
Gianni Infantino’s letter about the World Cup is lamentable, irrational and dumbfoundingly stupid
From Academics
Sport, Ethics and Philosophy (academic journal)
Sportswashing: Complicity and Corruption
Natasha Iskander
Does Skill Make Us Human?: Migrant Workers in 21st-Century Qatar and Beyond (book)