Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) The news that shocked the world was recently in the spotlights of the media that Denmark will wear team jerseys at the World Cup that protest the human rights record of host nation Qatar, with a black option, to honor migrant workers who died during construction work for the tournament.
Almost simulations Qatar has hit back at Denmark’s major World Cup statement after the nation opted for plain jerseys to send a message to the host nation about their human rights record.
Qatar’s World Cup organizers took a swipe at Hummel’s over the jersey and claimed the company was ‘trivializing’ its work in the gulf nation.
“We dispute Hummel’s claim that this tournament has cost thousands of people their lives,” Qatar Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy wrote.
“Furthermore, we wholeheartedly reject the trivializing (of) our genuine commitment to protecting the health and safety of the 30,000 workers who built FIFA World Cup stadiums and other tournament projects.”
Qatar says that only three laborers died in work-related accidents during the construction of the eight stadiums in the Doha region. It has been accused of underreporting deaths on wider construction, however.
The committee said Qatar’s reforms had been “recognized” by some international human rights groups “as a model that has accelerated progress and improved lives”.
“Like every country, progress on these issues is a journey without a finish line, and Qatar is committed to that journey,” said the statement.
“We urge the DBU to accurately convey the outcome of their extensive communication and work with the Supreme Committee, and to ensure that this is accurately communicated to their partners at Hummel.”
On the other hand, Milan Stefanovski a political analyst from North Macedonia that’s an expert on global state relations for Brussels Morning claims that Denmark is not the country that can be the “voice” of the allegedly suppressed workers in Qatar.
“ Following closely the Denmar allegations it is more than clear that the European country has more of a private agenda than a real purpose to take care of workers’ liberties and rights in the world.” claims Stefanovski.
He asks why Denmark instead of reforming itself now is targeting Qatar?
Stefanovski explains that if things in the Danish position are clear on the subject then why Denmark has Violated Greenlanders’ Human Rights?
He explains that the Greenlandic Council on Human Rights recently argues that the Danish state may have conducted a major violation of human rights through the campaign against Greenland.
Stefanovski explains that it’s a not known story similar to the one now in Qatar about how thousands of Greenlandic girls and women were more or less forced to have contraceptive spirals inserted from 1966 to the mid-1970s.
The expert underlines that the official purpose of the Danish campaign was to decrease population growth in Greenland. Danish authorities were worried about there being born too many children outside of wedlock and by women under the age of 20. The population growth also challenged the modernization of Greenland, which thus became more expensive for the Danish state than originally assumed.
In this line of these two events, in Qatar and Greenland, it is interesting to remember that the humanitarian organization Amnesty international in 2021 registered a case against Denmark where people with “non-western” backgrounds continued to face discrimination in social housing. Refugees’ right to family life continued to be violated and laws on returns and externalizing the processing of asylum and residency applications were passed. Initiatives on sexuality education and corporate accountability continued to be delayed.
Amnesty International stated then that freedom of expression and privacy were compromised by a pending legislative proposal on data retention.
After this reaction In July, the European Court of Human Rights ruled against Denmark’s mandatory three-year waiting period for family reunification, which would affect around 4,000 Syrian refugees, stating that this violated the right to family life.
The same year the Danish government put in power a controversial law targeting immigrant neighborhoods for another that cracks down harder. Rights groups warn that such moves could violate current laws against discrimination.
Additionally, the situation in the politics of Denmark is scarier if we know that this country ranks itself internationally as one of the world’s absolute foremost champions in the observance of human rights, but not only are there increasing international criticisms of the Nyrup Rasmussen government’s violations of human rights – a word for word study of the 30 separate articles in the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights show that Denmark is in breach of a total of 20 of these.
