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Fifa “should be more transparent about risks to stadium workers”

Fifa’s Human Rights Advisory Board, which was created earlier this year to provide independent advice on its human rights responsibilities, has published its first report.

The governing body of international football has been under close scrutiny in recent years following the treatment of construction workers in Qatar and Russia.

The board is made up of eight representatives from the UN, civil society, trade unions and sponsors. Their report make 33 detailed recommendations on issues the governing body should focus on, including, as a priority, "continuing to strengthen efforts to address risks to workers’ rights on World Cup construction sites in Russia and Qatar".

Fifa says it has created "monitoring systems" to ensure construction workers are treated fairly, however the board says these measures should be made public.

The board also said Fifa should be more transparent when fresh cases of human rights abuse emerge. "It is important for Fifa to make prompt factual statements about its knowledge of the situation that can be shared with relevant expert and directly involved stakeholders," it said.

Jane Buchanan, assistant director of the European and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch, told Reuters: "There is so much that Fifa has to show in terms of what it is doing.

"There is no public information about the nature, the quality, the kinds of inspections that are going on in Russia, and so there is no way to evaluate whether it is effective. We are simply asked to take Fifa’s word for it and I think that is hard for a lot of people."

Read the report here.

Image courtesy of Fifa

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