Focus on Qatar: Why Human Rights Research Matters

Earlier this week in Qatar, authorities finally released researchers Krishna Upadhyaya and Ghimire Gundev, who were detained for eight days while in the country for the Norway-based Global Network for Rights and Development. Their story is but the most recent example of the dangers that human rights professionals face and a reminder of the vital role they play in efforts to improve the conditions of workers in Qatar and around the world. 

Upadhyaya and Gundev, British citizens of Nepali origin, arrived in Qatar on August 31 for what was supposed to be a four-day visit. Their plan was to investigate the conditions of migrant workers in the country. Under the media spotlight after winning its bid to host the football World Cup in 2022, Qatar has faced serious international criticism for its restrictive immigration and labour laws, and the grim conditions many migrants encounter while working there.

In particular, rights groups have criticized Qatar’s kafala, or sponsorship, system – immigration laws that tie a worker’s legal residency to a single employer and require their permission to either change jobs or leave the country – for enabling workers’ exploitation.

Shortly before being detained, the researchers texted coworkers to inform them they were being harassed by the local police, and that they were concerned about their security. Colleagues and relatives then lost contact with them until the Qatari authorities confirmed on September 6 that the two were in detention. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a public statement, announcing that the two were “being interrogated for having violated the provisions of the laws of the State of Qatar.” The statement did not note which laws they were suspected of violating, or why.

Even with the welcome news of their release, the two researchers’ detention shocked many observers. Dozens of journalists, researchers, and activists have visited the country during the last few years to investigate and comment on migrant workers’ conditions in the country, and many have been harshly critical of what they found.

Representatives of the ITUC (International Trade Union Conference), that in 2013 launched a campaign to rerun the 2022 World Cup hosting vote based on the denial of fundamental workers’ rights, have visited the country regularly, while Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have also carried out research—even held press conferences—in the country. As a human rights researcher and writer who documented workers’ cases in 2011 and earlier this year, I have visited multiple Qatari labour camps and spoken with dozens of workers without incident.

Upadhyaya and Gundev are not the first foreign visitors to be questioned or detained while looking at workers’ rights. In October 2013, Qatari police detained two German broadcast journalists filming workers from their hotel balcony, and threatened to confiscate their footage. Police held the two for 27 hours before releasing them. In 2011, Swiss sports journalists were detained for a few hours for filming without a permit. Yet, at eight days, the detention of Upadhyaya and Gundev may be the longest detention of visiting investigators to receive public attention.

Some commentators have raised questions about the funding and political position of the Global Network, a small organization that according to its website has two offices in the United Arab Emirates and receives substantial funding from Emirati businesses. Tensions between Qatar and its Gulf neighbours have mounted in recent years, coming to a head during the ouster of Egypt’s former president Mohammed Morsi and subsequent transition to a government led by former army general Abdulfattah al-Sisi. Since the military takeover, the Emirates, along with Saudi Arabia and Egypt, have recalled their ambassadors from Doha and relations have remained frosty since.

Yet regardless of the Network’s Emirati connections, no evidence has emerged that the researchers engaged in any activities other than the research undertaken by dozens of others—meeting and speaking with some of the migrants who make up 94 percent of the country’s workforce. In Qatar, a country with several GONGOs (government-funded institutions that provide some forms of assistance and reporting) but lacks officially-registered independent NGOs, the work of visiting researchers and journalists is essential to gathering information on workers’ rights—and other human rights abuses—in the country. Allowing this type of work is vital not only for public information, but for businesses that wish to engage in socially responsible recruitment and management of workers in the country.

In order to meet global expectations, all businesses should undertake due diligence to ensure that their conduct, and the conduct of their suppliers and sub-contractors, is consistent with international human rights standards – in particular the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The Guiding Principles specifically call upon companies to undertake due diligence, a process that requires making inquiries and conducting research, to ensure an informed decision about the context in which they are operating. Obstructing research by human rights workers will only add to international criticism that the Qatari government has been facing, and may discourage future efforts to document workers’ conditions. Businesses should reflect on this reality, so that they know what it means if they operate in Qatar, when independent verification of operational reality in Qatar – such as what Upadhyaya and Gundev were reportedly doing – is not possible.

Though the intense scrutiny the country remains under may be tough to bear, Qatari authorities are best served by continuing to allow visiting researchers, journalists and writers to carry out their work unhindered by security harassment or detention. The government should receive credit for allowing research to go forward, as well as for funding its own investigations of workers’ conditions through the Qatar Foundation and other government-funded institutions.

Meanwhile, businesses operating or seeking to carry out projects in Qatar should keep a close eye not only on workers’ conditions and rights in the country, but on whether information continues to be available from a variety of sources, and whether the relative openness the country has shown in the past remains. Openness to journalistic and NGO inquiries, and independent research, should factor into their evaluation of conditions wherever they choose to operate, particularly in countries with poor track records on workers’ rights and serious restrictions on civil society.