A Voice for the Voiceless

FIFA Sets Deadline for Qatar to Show Signs of Improvements in Working Conditions for Migrants

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Middle East

DOHA, Qatar – Organizers of the 2022 FIFA World Cup have been given a tight deadline by Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) to explain what is being done to improve working conditions for migrant labourers working on the construction process for various buildings associated with the World Cup. FIFA is demanding that The Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy in Qatar Provide the organization with “detailed report” by February 12 with “information on specific steps” being taken to improve conditions faced by migrant works, who make up the majority of the construction workforce in Qatar.

Migrant Workers wait for a bus that will take them to an accommodation camp in Doha, Qatar, where they are working on 2022 World Cup infrastructure. (Photo Courtesy of The Guardian)

Concerns over the working conditions of migrant workers, who are often subjected to near slave-like conditions, in Qatar was reported extensively in a report by Amnesty International last year.

FIFA as initially criticized for failing to adequately address the concerns over Qatar’s history of worker abuses. However, after the report was made public FIFA president Sepp Blatter publicly described the situation as “unacceptable” and raised during a visit to Doha last November.

FIFA plans to use the report to prepare for the hearing on the matter of workers’ rights in the Arab emirate at the European Parliament in Brussels on 13 February 2014. In a press release FIFA announced that “the application of international norms of behaviour is a FIFA principle and part of all of FIFA’s activities, and is expected from all hosts of its events.” Doctor Theo Zwanziger, who was appointed by FIFA to spearhead efforts to address the issue of labour rights in Qatar associated with the World Cup, has held several meetings with human rights and labour organisations including Amnesty International and the ILO, in order to strengthen the dialogue between various interest groups and to reach a sanctioned approach.

According to Zwanziger FIFA is “currently in the middle of an intensive process, which is exclusively aimed at improving the situation of workers in Qatar.” A complete report will be delivered to the FIFA Executive Committee at its meeting on 20 and 21 March. Zwanziger stated that clear rules and an outlined process will be needed in order to “build trust and ensure that the situation, which is unacceptable at the moment, improves in a sustainable manner.”

The choice of Qatar as the host nation for the 2022 FIFA World Cup has been criticized since the organization made the decision to allow the Arab state to host the games. Concerns about the health risks associated with acute summer temperatures in Qatar has led FIFA to delay the competition to the winter. The origination has also been criticized by several human rights organizations and activist for choosing Qatar to host the games despite its long history of Labour rights abuses.

FIFA has stated that it ”firmly believes in the power of the World Cup in triggering positive social change in Qatar, including improving the labour rights and conditions of migrant workers.”

What is clear is that the decision to host world’s most popular sporting event in Qatar has brought the issue of migrant rights and labour conditions in Qatar into the public eye.

For more information please see:

CNN International – Qatar Set Deadline by FIFA over Conditions For Migrant Workers – 31 January 2014

Fédération Internationale De Football Association – FIFA Requests Update On Working Conditions In Qatar – 31 January 2014

Bloomberg – FIFA Demands Report from Qatar on World Cup Construction Deaths – 30 January 2014

The Guardian – Qatar World Cup: FIFA Demands Update on Efforts to Improve Worker Conditions – 30 January 2014

Press Release: Russian Authorities Defy Council of Europe Magnitsky Resolution by Upholding Posthumous Guilty Verdict Against Sergei Magnitsky

Press Release
For Immediate Distribution

31 January 2014. – Today, the Russian authorities defied the resolution adopted three days ago by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) byupholding the posthumous  guilty verdict against Sergei Magnitsky who was tortured and killed in Russian custody four years ago.

The Moscow City Court announced this morning that the posthumous verdict against Magnitsky “automatically” came into force “because nobody challenged it”.

Just three days ago, delegates from 47 member countries of PACE have adoptedwith an 81% vote the resolution entitled “Refusing Impunity for the Killers of Sergei Magnitsky”, calling on Russian authorities “to close the posthumous trial against Mr Magnitsky.” Instead, the Russian officials went ahead with the posthumous case.

The PACE resolution calls for “targeted sanctions against individuals (visa bans and freezing accounts)” by Council of Europe member states in the case of Russia failing to address the recommendations contained in the resolution.

“It is clear from today’s decision that Russian authorities have immediately defied the PACE resolution and deserve sanctions. Moreover, it shows that the justice system in Russia has been bastardized to support high-level government corruption,” said a Hermitage Capital representative.

Last year, President Putin promoted judge of Tverskoi District Court Igor Alisov who issued to Sergei Magnitsky a guilty verdict in the first posthumous trial in Russian legal history.

For more information please contact:

Law and Order in Russia

 

PACE Documents “Refusing Impunity for the Killers of Sergei Magnitsky”

PACE Resolution 1966 (2014)1: http://www.assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/X2H-Xref-ViewPDF.asp?FileID=20409&lang=en

“18. The Assembly resolves to follow closely the implementation of the above proposals. It recalls its Resolution 1597 (2007) and Recommendation 1824 (2007) on United Nations Security Council and European Union blacklists. It further resolves that if, within a reasonable period of time, the competent authorities have failed to make any or any adequate response to this resolution, the Assembly should recommend to member States of the Council of Europe to follow as a last resort the example of the United States in adopting targeted sanctions against individuals (visa bans and freezing of accounts), having first given those named individuals the opportunity to make appropriate representations in their defence.”

PACE Recommendation: http://www.assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/X2H-Xref-ViewPDF.asp?FileID=20410&lang=en

“1. The Parliamentary Assembly refers to its Resolution 1966 (2014) on refusing impunity for the killers of Sergei Magnitsky, and invites the Committee of Ministers to examine ways and means:

1.1.     of improving international co-operation in investigating the “money trail” of the funds originating in the fraudulent tax reimbursements denounced by Mr Magnitsky; and, in particular,

1.2.     of ensuring that the Russian Federation fully participates in these efforts and holds to account the perpetrators and beneficiaries both of the crime committed against Sergei Magnitsky and that denounced by him.”

PACE Report “Refusing Impunity for the Killers of Sergei Magnitsky”:http://www.assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-DocDetails-EN.asp?fileid=20084&wrqid=0&wrqref=&ref=1&lang=EN

Snowden’s Leaked Documents Shows Canada Spying On Airport Travelers

By: Brandon R. Cottrell 
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America 

OTTAWA, Canada – The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported today that leaked documents by Edward Snowden show Canada’s electronic spying agency collected data from “ordinary airline passengers” travelling through Canadian airports over a two week period.

Airline passengers who used the airport’s free wi-fi were the victim of a Canadian spying effort, per an Edward Snowden leaked document (Photo Courtesy CBC News).

Though Canadian law prohibits the Communications Security Establishment Canada (“CSEC”) from targeting any individual in Canada without a warrant, the CSEC has defended its action by citing its mission, which is to collect foreign intelligence by intercepting phone and internet traffic in order to protect Canadians.  CSEC has also said that no Canadians were spied on, yet most find no merit to that claim, as it is mostly Canadians that frequent Canadian airports.

Ronald Deibert, one of Canada’s foremost authorities on cyber-security, said, however,  that he “can’t see any circumstance in which this would not be unlawful, under current Canadian law, under our Charter, under CSEC’s mandates.”

The CSEC further defends its action by saying that it only collected metadata, which it is legally authorized to collect and analyze.  Metadata, the information about a communication, such as the date and location of the communication but not the details of what was said or written, is however, still valuable information and considered by most to be an invasion of privacy.

Deibert, in regards to metadata, said that it is “way more powerful than the content of communications . . . you can tell a lot more about people, their habits, their relationships, their friendships, even their political preferences, based on that type of metadata.”

The report also indicates that the metadata was collected using a new powerful software program that was being developed by the United States’ National Security Agency (“NSA”), and is now fully operational.  Experts say that the program, after initially capturing information, “would have enabled the agency to track them for a week or more as they showed up in other wi-fi ‘hot spots’ around Canada, such as other airports, hotels or restaurants.”  The new program is also considered to be “game-changing,” as it could be used for tracking “any target that makes occasional forays into other cities/regions.”

A spokeswoman for the Canadian agency was critical of the leak, and defended the document as a “technical presentation between specialists exploring mathematical models built on everyday scenarios to identify and locate foreign terrorist threats [and that] the unauthorized disclosure of tradecraft puts our techniques at risk of being less effective when addressing threats to Canada and Canadians.”

Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor, is currently living in Russia after fleeing the US in May 2013 after he leaked thousands of documents that revealed extensive internet and phone surveillance by US intelligence services.

For further information, please see: 

BBC – Snowden Leaks: Canada ‘Spied On Airport Travellers’ – 31 Jan. 2014 

Bloomberg – Spy Agency Tracked Canadians At An Airport – 31 Jan. 2014 

CBC News – CSEC Used Airport Wi-Fi To Track Canadian Travellers: Edward Snowden Documents – 31 Jan. 2014 

RT – Attention Fliers: Canada’s Electronic Spy Agency Is Following You – New Snowden Leaks – 31 Jan. 2014