Shared responsibility and human rights abuse: the 2022 World Cup in Qatar

Abstract

Since 2010, recurrent human rights violations of migrants working on building new or refurbishing existing infrastructure for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar have been denounced. This paper focuses on three of the main actors involved in those violations—Qatar, FIFA and Switzerland—in order to determine how shared responsibility could be a useful framework to ensure protection of and reparation to the victims. The article also raises serious questions about the application of shared responsibility and the effective enforcement of human rights when non-state actors are involved.