Catherwood LibraryILR School

In light of recent attacks on Qatar by international labor rights organizations for their failure to observe the Forced Labour Convention, the country’s leadership has announced that it will take greater measures to ensure a significant decrease in labor rights violations. Representatives of the Human Rights Watch have expressed skepticism regarding whether or not Qatar will actually take any action in enforcing labor laws given the lack of detail regarding exactly what direction the country will take in the coming months. The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) have been closely investigating the country’s labor practices, emphasizing the importance of labor reform in Qatar as it might lead neighboring Gulf countries to revise their labor legislation as well. Given that nearly 95% of Qatar’s labor force is comprised of migrant workers, laborers in the country are particularly vulnerable to labor rights abuses from employers who, under a system called “kafala” which is widely used in the Gulf countries, generally control all aspects of migrants’ stays in Qatar. Although the commitments Qatar is currently making to workers are a step in the right direction, the actual implementation of these changes remains to be seen.