Blatter Manages To Speak Sense On Human Rights In Qatar

Blatter - has he actually started thinking?

This is going to sound like the kind of thing we’d pretend FIFA President Sepp Blatter uttered in the name of satire. But he actually said it, to CNN. Yes, Blatter managed to address the issue of human rights without shoving his toes in his own maw. On the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, he said: “If the principles of human rights will not be respected, then this could be a problem. We will push Qatar to make sure the World Cup will be played in such conditions that other World Cups have been played and that human rights are respected.”

Let’s hope he’s not talking about Argentina 78. And naturally, the Scepticism Radar at WCHR world headquarters began to howl like a distressed mongoose. Is this just placatory PR to make up for his sad remarks about homosexuals abstaining from sexual activity while at the WC, and his admission to the Zürich-based Sonntagszeitung that he hadn’t even known that homosexuality was illegal in the Gulf state? Or has Sepp been subscribing to our feed and belatedly realised that the governing body’s mission could become more noble than merely making cash from man’s ability to kick a round ball?

Qatar Hosts Human Rights Convention. Good Job!

Those concerned about human rights in Qatar ahead of the 2022 World Cup need not worry. The Gulf Times reports that Doha this week hosted a two-day convention of Gulf state delegates on the subject, and although there was little concrete information about what was discussed, it seems certain that all present agreed on the immediate need to de-criminalise homosexuality, promote equal rights for women, allow foreign labourers to unionise, depose the feudal monarchy, and introduce a free and critical press in the transition to a multi-party democracy with universal suffrage. It’s surely the very least that FIFA demanded when Qatar submitted its bid to host.

Erections in downtown Doha

“Death to patriarchy and the petrocracy!” cried Ibrahim Salama, director of the Office of International Conventions on Human Rights at the UN, in his closing speech. Or possibly not. In fact the Gulf Times reported in suitably long-winded fashion that the forum “focused over two days on the exchange of expertise in studies and recommendations for the implementation of mechanisms of international human rights. The forum reviewed the experience of the countries of the region and other geographical areas.” It was not reported whether videos were shown of humans being whipped or executed to illustrate these experiences.