With 100 days to go until the World Cup starts in Qatar, Human Rights Watch on Friday again urged FIFA and the host nation to improve compensation for migrant workers and their families. The rights group called for a “comprehensive remedy program for workers who suffered serious harms, including deaths, injuries, and wage theft” while working on World Cup-related projects like stadiums, transport and hotels. Qatar has spent tens of billions of dollars on infrastructure since being picked by FIFA as host in 2010, and faced intense scrutiny of its labor laws and treatment of hundreds of thousands of workers, many from south Asia, who were needed to come to the tiny emirate and build the projects. Read: FIFA to use new high-tech for offside calls at World Cup “Qatar has compensated some migrant workers who have faced serious abuses in recent years, but for many, these programs were created too late and are still a major work in progress,” said Michael Page, HRW’s deputy director for the Middle East. Since 2010, the agency claimed, the level of “uncompensated human rights abuses … is significant.” In Qatar, a Workers’ Support Fund has since 2020 paid out $164 million in compensation to 36,373 workers from 17 different countries, HRW said citing data from Qatar's Ministry of Labor. The organization did not specify a figure for how much compensation is still needed, though Amnesty International has suggested FIFA should pay $440 million in reparations to workers — matching the sum soccer’s world body will pay in prize money to the 32 national federations whose teams are playing in Qatar. FIFA and tournament organizers have long cited the World Cup as a catalyst to modernize laws and society in Qatar. Responding to Amnesty in May, Qatari organizers pointed to “significant improvements … across accommodation standards, health and safety regulations, grievance mechanisms, healthcare provision, and reimbursements of illegal recruitment fees to workers.”

The United Nations Security Council should urgently convene an open session on Myanmar and pass a binding resolution on the situation in the country, Fortify Rights said on Thursday. A Security Council resolution on Myanmar should impose a global arms embargo on the military, refer the situation in the country to the International Criminal Court, and impose targeted sanctions, it said. Also read:US may influence ASEAN to persuade Myanmar to stop atrocities, take Rohingyas back: Momen Nine high-level representatives from member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are scheduled to meet U.S. President Joe Biden on May 12 and 13 during a special summit in Washington D.C., where the regional bloc’s response to the crisis in Myanmar will be discussed. “ASEAN and its consensus have failed,” said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer at Fortify Rights, a rights group which primarily works to ensure human rights. “The Security Council has a responsibility to act. The flow of arms and money to the junta must be stopped, and the Security Council is the key international body with a mandate to make that happen," he said  In April 2021, ASEAN leaders reached a “Five-Point Consensus” with the Myanmar military, aimed at putting the nation back on a path to peace following the February 2021 military coup d’état led by Myanmar Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. The Myanmar junta has flouted the agreement while committing mass atrocity crimes. The U.K. is the U.N. Security Council’s “penholder” on Myanmar and should table a Chapter VII resolution mandating an arms embargo and referral to the ICC, and President Biden should use the occasion of the Special Summit to obtain ASEAN’s support for such a move, Fortify Rights said. Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter enables the Security Council to take coercive action with respect to threats to international peace and security; Chapter VII resolutions are binding on all U.N. member states. The Myanmar military is responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes and has long posed a threat to international peace and security, said the rights body. Since launching a coup d’état on February 1, 2021, the Myanmar army and police have reportedly killed more than 1,800 people and detained more than 13,640. President Biden should also encourage ASEAN member states to engage the National Unity Government of Myanmar, as recommended by Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah, said Fortify Rights. Also read: Myanmar Crisis: US, ASEAN urged to increase pressure on Myanmar military junta Thailand should be urged to stop returning refugees to Myanmar and to authorize cross-border humanitarian aid, it said. The U.S. Government and ASEAN should also ensure that humanitarian aid to Myanmar is not directed through the military junta, said Fortify Rights. “The Myanmar junta is destabilizing the entire region, and ASEAN is at risk of losing all credibility for failing to take decisive action,” said Matthew Smith.  “All governments have a responsibility to protect the people of Myanmar from mass atrocities and that includes members of the Security Council.”