• Qatar: Abuse of Migrant Workers

    Qatar’s migrant workers, who comprise 80 percent of the population, remain acutely vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. The prohibition on trade unions, the kafala system of sponsorship-based employment, illegally imposed recruitment fees, and the routine confiscation of passports enables employers to exercise inordinate control over migrant workers. Many migrant workers live in crowded, unsanitary housing, and work under conditions of forced labor. Qatar’s winning bid for the 2022 Football World Cup has resulted in a booming construction sector that is expected to create a demand for a further one million foreign workers. The country should reform its regulatory and legal framework to protect them.

  • Qatar: Poet’s Conviction Violates Free Expression
    Dec 4, 2012
    A Qatari court’s life sentence for the poet Muhammad Ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami after a grossly unfair trial flagrantly violates the right to free expression. Putting Ibn al-Deeb on trial badly undermined Qatar’s efforts to present itself as a free speech haven.
  • Qatar: Revise Draft Media Law to Allow Criticism of Rulers
    Oct 30, 2012
    Qatar’s ruler should not approve a draft media law unless loosely worded provisions penalizing criticism of Qatar or neighboring governments are removed.
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Qatar

  • Qatar: Poet’s Conviction Violates Free Expression
    Dec 4, 2012
    A Qatari court’s life sentence for the poet Muhammad Ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami after a grossly unfair trial flagrantly violates the right to free expression. Putting Ibn al-Deeb on trial badly undermined Qatar’s efforts to present itself as a free speech haven.
  • Qatar: Revise Draft Media Law to Allow Criticism of Rulers
    Oct 30, 2012
    Qatar’s ruler should not approve a draft media law unless loosely worded provisions penalizing criticism of Qatar or neighboring governments are removed.
  • Qatar: Drop Charges Against Poet Ibn al-Dheeb
    Sep 6, 2012
    We are writing to you to express our concerns over the continued detention of Qatari poet Muhammad Ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami, and the inconsistency of this action with Qatar’s international obligations and its burgeoning global reputation as a center for media freedom.
  • UK Firms Face Unsightly Reality of Qatar's Global Ambitions
    Jul 12, 2012
    The Qatari government routinely and rigorously enforces some of its laws - those that grant employers extensive control over migrant workers. Its most problematic regulations include the kafala system of sponsorship-based employment, which ties workers to one employer; and an exit visa requirement, which allows employers to prevent workers from leaving the country without their permission.
  • Qatar: Migrant Construction Workers Face Abuse
    Jun 12, 2012
    Hundreds of thousands of mostly South Asian migrant construction workers in Qatar risk serious exploitation and abuse, sometimes amounting to forced labor. Both the government and the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) need to make sure that their commitments to respect workers’ rights in preparation for the 2022 World Cup are carried out. Construction contractors should also make specific, public commitments to uphold international labor standards.
  • Open to Abuse
    Oct 4, 2011
    The stench of mold in the dormitory was overpowering. A dozen bunk beds hugged the perimeter, lest one centimeter of potential sleeping space be wasted. Wooden planks served as mattresses for some of the men who called that barrack home.This was not a prison or a housing complex in one of the world’s poorer regions. It was a company-built dormitory for Bangladeshi workers in the state of Qatar, the world’s wealthiest nation in terms of gross domestic product per capita. And it took only 15 minutes to get there from Doha’s breathtaking downtown.
  • Women in the Crossfire
    Jun 8, 2011
    Iman Obeidi became famous in March when she burst into the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli and accused Libyan forces of raping her. She was quickly taken by authorities, but eventually found her way to Qatar to seek refugee status in the West. Last week, Qatari authorities inexplicably sent her back to Libya. She has since begun the process of moving to the U.S., where she will apply for refugee status. Her story has highlighted a growing problem – the use of rape as a tool in war zones. [Note: This interview took place before news broke that Obeidi is headed to the U.S.]
  • Help Obeidy out of Libya
    Jun 5, 2011
    The call was urgent, the news shocking: Qatar, a close US ally and supporter of the NATO campaign in Libya, had forced a Libyan woman who said she was raped onto a plane back to Libya.
  • Qatar/Libya: Forced Return of Rape Victim
    Jun 2, 2011
    The Qatari government forcibly returned Eman al-‘Obeidy, a recognized refugee, to rebel-held Benghazi in eastern Libya on June 2, 2011, Human Rights Watch said today. Al-‘Obeidy and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) both repeatedly protested her forcible return but were ignored, Human Rights Watch said.
  • Organisation of the Islamic Conference: Improve and Strengthen the 1999 OIC Convention on Combating International Terrorism
    Mar 11, 2008
    Human Rights Watch writes to urge Dr. Ihsanoglu to use his position as Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to support measures at the upcoming Summit of the Organisation of Islamic Conference in Dakar, Senegal on March 13-14 that would improve and strengthen the 1999 OIC Convention on Combating International Terrorism.
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