Despite hosting the FIFA World Cup in late 2022 with promises to enact reforms, Qatari authorities have failed to address serious labor violations. Migrant workers face wage theft, unexplained deaths, dangerous working conditions and continued exploitation after the tournament. Discriminatory laws and practices against women and girls, LGBT people, and religious minorities such as the Baha’i community remain in place. Despite ongoing discrimination and restrictions on free expression, Qatar was re-elected to the UN Human Rights Council for 2025 to 2027. On September 9, Israel carried out a strike in Qatar targeting Hamas leaders that killed six people, including a Qatari security officer, and injured several others.

Migrant Workers’ Rights

Migrant workers comprise over 91 percent of Qatar’s population and continue to face widespread abuse under the country’s restrictive kafala (labor sponsorship) system. Although Qatar introduced labor reforms ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, such as allowing workers to change jobs and leave the country without employer permission, setting a minimum wage, and creating wage protection systems, these efforts have had limited impact. Weak enforcement, narrow scope, and continued employer control over workers have undermined the reforms.

Workers still struggle to change jobs easily as in practice they are required to obtain signed letters from their original employers approving their resignation. Practices such as migrant workers leaving their employers without permission are criminalized as "absconding" even when escaping abuse. Employers confiscating passports and charging illegal recruitment fees remain common and largely unpunished.

Qatar’s monthly minimum wage, introduced in 2021, is set at QAR 1,000 (about US$274). This amount does not account for the high living expenses in Qatar and has not been revised since 2021. Human Rights Watch has also documented that widespread wage abuses have persisted. In many cases, migrant workers resort to protests and strikes against wage delays despite the risk of arrest and deportation.

The 2022 World Cup also brought to light the preventable deaths of scores of migrant workers that are neither investigated nor compensated. A large majority of the deaths are erroneously attributed to “natural causes.” Qatar has also failed to publicize disaggregated and comprehensive data on worker deaths that include key details like age, nationality, sector of work, and cause.

Governments also continue to prioritize trade and other strategic interests with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries over human rights. The forthcoming Trade Agreement between the United Kingdom (UK) and the GCC excludes explicit human rights protections and commitments, including for migrant workers. A trade agreement with GCC states risks contributing to abuses against migrant workers by facilitating wage abuse, employer exploitation, and situations that amount to forced labor.

Women’s and Girls’ Rights

Women and girls in Qatar face extensive legal and social discrimination under a male guardianship system embedded in the country’s laws and practices. Women and girls must obtain permission from male guardians to marry, travel abroad, work in many government jobs, study on scholarships, and access some reproductive health services. Single Qatari women under 25 need guardian approval to travel. Married women of any age can travel without permission, but their male guardian can petition a court for a travel ban. Qatari women also face legal restrictions on attending certain events and bars serving alcohol. In practice, women face discrimination in renting property without the permission of their male guardian. Unmarried Qatari women under 30 cannot check in to hotels unless their male guardian is with them.

Qatar’s Personal Status Law limits women’s rights in marriage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance. Women need a male guardian’s permission to marry and must obey their husbands, risking loss of financial support if they disobey or work without permission. Men have the unilateral right to divorce, while women must seek court approval under strict conditions. Female siblings inherit half the amount of their male siblings. Women are also denied primary guardianship of their children, and citizenship laws favor men in passing nationality to spouses and children.

Although the law prohibits husbands from harming wives, Qatar lacks specific domestic violence legislation or protections for survivors. Male guardians and family members can report women for being “absent” from home, potentially leading to arrest and forcible return home or administrative detention. Recent residency laws have slightly eased restrictions for children of Qatari women married to non-citizens, allowing permanent residency and access to government services.

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Qatar’s penal code criminalizes consensual sex outside of marriage, including same-sex relations, with penalties of up to seven years in prison. Muslims convicted of extramarital sex may face flogging or even the death penalty. These laws disproportionately affect women and girls, as pregnancy can be used as evidence of extramarital sex, and women and girls reporting rape risk prosecution for consensual sex. Article 285 also punishes men who “entice” others into same-sex acts, and harsher sentences apply for sex outside marriage regardless of gender.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Qatar face arbitrary arrest under vague and broad morality laws, harsh treatment in detention, including beatings, verbal abuse, sexual harassment, and denial of legal or medical access, and forced conversion therapy for transgender women. The Law on Protection of Community allows for provisional detention without charge or trial for up to six months, if “there exist well-founded reasons to believe that the defendant may have committed a crime,” including “violating public morality.” Authorities monitor and arrest individuals based on their online activity and censor media related to sexual orientation and gender identity.

Freedom of Expression and Religion

Qatar’s penal code criminalizes criticism of the emir, insulting the national flag, blasphemy, and inciting regime overthrow. Its cybercrime law punishes online “false news,” content that “violates social values,” or insults others, with penalties including prison and heavy fines.

Qatari authorities have discriminated against members of the Baha’i faith based solely on their religious identity. Qatar deported as many as 14 members of the group between 2003-2025 for no apparent reason other than belonging to the Baha’i faith in cases documented by Human Rights Watch and UN experts.

Qatari authorities acquitted and released Remy Rowhani, chair of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is in Qatar, in October 2025 after months of arbitrary detention on charges based on the peaceful exercise of his rights to freedom of speech and religion. UN experts expressed concern over Rowhani’s arrest and detention, describing it as "part of a broader and disturbing pattern of disparate treatment of the Baha’i minority in Qatar."

Statelessness

Qatar has arbitrarily stripped members of the Ghufran clan of their citizenship since 1996, leaving some stateless and deprived of fundamental rights. Stateless individuals from the clan lack access to work, education, healthcare, marriage, property ownership, and freedom of movement. Without valid identity documents, they face barriers to basic services and risk arbitrary detention, while being excluded from government benefits like state jobs and subsidies available to citizens.

Climate Change Policy and Actions

Qatar, the world’s 14th largest oil producer and holder of the third largest natural gas reserves, is one of the highest per capita greenhouse gas emitters globally. Despite committing to reduce emissions by 25 percent, Qatar continues to expand liquefied natural gas (LNG) production for export.

Migrant workers, especially in outdoor jobs like construction, face severe health risks from extreme heat, further exacerbated by the climate crisis that makes extreme heat events more frequent, intense and widespread. Although Qatar introduced new protections that ban work when wet-bulb globe temperatures exceed 32.1 degrees Celsius (about 90 degrees Fahrenheit), this threshold is set too high to effectively protect workers and enforcement gaps remain, leaving workers exposed to dangerous conditions.