Several NGOs, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, described this Tuesday as “misleading” an independent human rights evaluation of the candidacy of Saudi Arabia for the 2034 World Cup.
The report, from the law firm AS&H Clifford Chance in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, ignores fundamental standards for respecting human rights, such as the international bill of human rights, eleven non-governmental organizations warned (NGO) in a joint statement.
The document, integrated into the Saudi candidacy and published on the FIFA website, “selectively” uses UN evaluations and was prepared without consulting credible external interlocutors, such as Saudi human rights specialists, the NGOs claim.
The evaluation was written within the framework of the Saudi bid to host the 2034 World Cup. FIFA will announce its decision in December and the Gulf country is the only candidate.
Requested by AFP, a FIFA spokesperson stressed that this report was requested by the organizing committee of the Saudi bid and not by FIFA.
The document can be read on the FIFA website, but it will publish its own evaluation, with a chapter dedicated to human rights, a few days before its congress on December 11, the spokesperson added.
Neither AS&H Clifford nor the Saudi authorities have yet reacted to the complaints from the NGOs, which also include FairSquare, Equidem, Football Supporters Europe and the Gulf Center for Human Rights.
According to the NGO statement, the evaluation “does not contain any substantial debate on the abuses committed in Saudi Arabia, documented by various human rights organizations and UN agencies.”
“The obvious omission of the perspective of credible external stakeholders is inconsistent with recommendations on human rights assessment,” they point out.
This factor, “together with the exclusion of key internationally recognized human rights (…), serves to create an artificially limited, misleading and overly positive perspective” on the situation of civic freedoms in Saudi Arabia.
The issue of human rights, a source of controversy during the 2022 World Cup in neighboring Qatar, could heat up if the 2034 World Cup is awarded to Saudi Arabia.
The rich oil country, which practices the death penalty and limits freedom of expression, is often under the spotlight of criticism for its record of respect for human rights.
The conservative kingdom, host of several international sporting events, is often accused of “sportswashing”, the use of sport to divert attention and whitewash its international image.
