According to Habeck, the new labor laws are “Written but still needs improvement and not fully implemented yet”. The Federal Minister spoke to the host of the WM even a pioneering role: “If Qatar goes ahead, the Arab world might follow.”
This statement shows that Habeck “can hardly have dealt with the situation in Qatar in depth”, Nicholas McGeehan, director of the human rights organization “Fairsquare”, told the sports show. To improve the human rights situation “You don’t need time, you need political will, and I still don’t see that.”
Serious reforms or just a facade?
This is what has been reported for many years WDR-Magazine “sports inside” regularly about and from Qatar. In December 2021, the contribution “Appearance and reality” published, which reported on migrant workers who waited months for their wages, which are still meager, even if there is now a law on a minimum wage.
Doubts remain that the autocratically run surveillance state has a lasting interest in fundamentally improving human rights. Free reporting is out of the question, a whistleblower who has since been imprisoned reported to “Sport inside” that the appearance far outweighs the supposed progress towards a sophisticated one PRstrategy.
Examples of a failed dialogue strategy
The examples of China (Olympics 2008 and 2022) and Russia (football World Cup 2018) show that sport did not build the bridges that, at the autocratic and dictatorial end, lead to the arduous path to a near democracy.
Critics and doubters about Qatar have had a difficult time since Habeck’s visit at the latest. How should the fans of the FC Are Bayern pushing for an end to the sponsorship partnership with the state-owned company Qatar Airways at their club if the states of Germany and Qatar are taking their already profitable business relationships to a new level?
“Just because we presumably get liquid gas from there doesn’t ruin morale“Said Sabine Poschmann of the sports show. The sports policy spokeswoman for the SPD called for further critical monitoring of the process initiated in Qatar and for reforms and their sustained compliance to be urged. “But we mustn’t jeopardize the process with excessive criticism.”
Poschmann sees a difference compared to China, for example, since Qatar allows human rights organizations and journalists to come into the country in order to get at least a limited picture of the abuses.
Tone of voice from “moderate” to “more moderate”
The turning point brought about by the Russian attack on Ukraine on February 24 should nevertheless set the tone in the future, from moderate to even more moderate. On March 20, 2022 in Doha, Robert Habeck set the direction with one sentence, which is therefore repeated: “If Qatar goes ahead, the Arab world might follow.”