Human rights in Qatar

The state of human rights in Qatar is a concern for several non-governmental organisations, such as Human Rights Watch (HRW), which reported in 2026 that migrant workers, which make up over 91 percent of the country's population, "continue to face widespread abuse under the country’s restrictive kafala system". Qatar is an authoritarian and de facto absolute monarchy under the House of Thani. Qatari law also does not permit the establishment of political bodies or trade unions. Awareness of human rights abuses in Qatar grew internationally after Qatar's controversial selection to stage the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Domestic servants, who are often women from poorer African, South and South East Asian countries, have little to no rights and often become victims of human and sex trafficking, including into prostitution. Individual rights and civil liberties in general are also highly restrictive in Qatar, such as the freedom of association, freedom of expression, and freedom of the press. In addition, sodomy laws exist for both males and females, but are mostly used to punish members of the LGBTQ community. Qatar's legal system is a mixture of civil law and Islamic law (Sharia). Flogging and capital punishment are also enforced.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.