Qatar is committed to making continuous progress on the welfare of country's workers, the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC) secretary general Hassan al-Thawadi said on Wednesday.
He was addressing a session at the 2016 UN Asia Regional Forum on Business and Human Rights, according to a report on the SC website.
“When we bid for the World Cup we did it with the spirit that a mega sporting event is not only a catalyst for a country’s own development plans but there is a responsibility to leave a lasting legacy," al-Thawadi pointed out.
"One important part of it is the social legacy we leave behind after the tournament. Our measure of success is what legacy this tournament leaves behind for Qatar and the region,” he said while recalling the recent appointment of a third party independent monitor.
"This year we also launched a customised IT auditing platform because we understood the issues we faced in the complex supply chain. We recognised early on the issues that we faced in the State of Qatar and we take our commitment to this matter very seriously, based on our values, traditions and culture.
"We look to this World Cup as a catalyst for sustainable, long-term change. We will continue beyond 2022 in our commitment. I don’t want to paint the picture that we are perfect, but we are committed to this and significant progress has been made.”
Professor John Ruggie of the Harvard Kennedy University, author of the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights and a recently published independent report for FIFA, said: “Sport has this unique capacity to make us forget about our differences. Football is the most popular sport, it evokes emotions, and it is our responsibility collectively to make sure football continues to play that role without getting torn apart. One of the ways to do that is to incorporate the human rights focus into all aspects of our work and make sure human dignity is respected and adequately dealt with.”
FIFA also spoke on the panel, highlighting the continued cooperation taking place with the SC on workers’ welfare.
“We have a constant exchange of information with the SC on this topic, both in terms of health and safety and workers’ welfare. We believe the measures taken by the SC are very positive,” said FIFA's head of sustainability, Federico Addiechi.
“There is some excellent progress we are observing, and we are also challenging the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy on their findings. We are constantly receiving their information. This is in addition to the independent monitoring system that is being added by the SC, which will add a lot of credibility to the work that is being done.
"We would also like to see the workers’ welfare standards trickle down to all levels of the supply chain, the system is robust enough to effect all the workers, and be seen as a benchmark for workers in the whole country.”