A photo that is taken in thousands of football matches in the world and that is already almost a mechanical ritual: the formation of the teams before starting the respective match. Only this time the protagonists don’t do something routine.
On the contrary, the German team, at the beginning of the first round of Group E of the Qatar World Cup, faces an obvious censure from FIFA, which prohibits team captains from using the tape. “One Love” with the colors of the rainbow, in salute to the demands of diversity rights and the LGBTQ world.
The seemingly innocent film was a real bombshell for the host regime, which heavily punishes sexual diversity. And FIFA strongly supported the motion, announcing yellow entry cards and financial fines to any captain of a national team who put the aforementioned symbol on his arm.
Faced with this ban, the German team posed for the initial photo of their first match covering their mouths, as a sign of the obvious censorship that the measure implied. The fact sums up in a simple way the complex relationship of football with Human Rights. Especially in this World Cup in Qatar.
Stories of abuse
The issue arises and resurfaces with special force in the football party, because the host country does not relate well to the subject. Moreover, this global football event brings together various moral situations that put sport and fundamental rights face to face.
Qatar not only paid FIFA the largest “contribution” of a country in history to organize a World Cup. The entire process of building the impressive stadiums where matches are played, for example, includes stories of human rights abuses, especially of migrant workers, sudden and unexpected deaths without investigation, lack of trade union rights, violation of freedom of expression and assembly, and discrimination against women’s rights and sexual dissent.
According to Amnesty International, migrants from Bangladesh, India and Nepal who worked on the refurbishment of the iconic Khalifa Stadium and the landscaping of the surrounding sports facilities and green areas – called “Aspire Zone“– have been brutally exploited. Some are subjected to forced labor, unable to change their working hours, or leave the country, and also with delays in their wages.
Categorical imperative
Polish-British sociologist Zygmunt Bauman called contemporary times “liquid,” making a simple but profound characterization. We live fast hours, things do not last long, new opportunities constantly arise that devalue the previous ones, flexibility stands out, the lack of permanent commitments, nothing is forever, all of which creates a situation – precisely – liquid.
Human Rights in Qatar are seen with the eyes of “the liquid”, in which it is convenient to “adapt”, to show “flexibility”. No clinging to categorical commitments. But Bauman himself argued that things did not have to continue like this. “If I didn’t have hope in that, I probably wouldn’t write books or lecture,” he once said.
The commemoration of International Human Rights Day on December 10 arises as an opportunity to not stop reflecting on these issues. The defense of fundamental rights is inspired by “a common ideal for all peoples and nations,” as stated in the Universal Declaration promulgated by the United Nations in 1948. On that occasion, after the terror and holocaust perpetrated by fascism during World War II, they wanted to give a message that no global party can or should obscure or “relax”.
Article One states: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and, endowed as they are with reason and conscience, should behave fraternally towards one another.” It is a universal imperative, transversal to all the dimensions of society and, therefore, to all areas of knowledge and those in which life in society occurs. Since then, human rights must always be apprehended, in every place and circumstance, as universal and intransiable principles.
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The content expressed in this opinion column is the sole responsibility of its author, and does not necessarily reflect the editorial line or position of El Mostrador.
