Dear visitor,

Why should I submit a report?

Avoiding harm to people is a key responsibility for any organisation. As an organiser of major football tournaments, FIFA takes this responsibility very seriously.

By informing us about a situation where people were harmed in association with a FIFA tournament, you will help us mitigating that situation, providing for remediation if appropriate, and learn from it to prevent such incidents from happening in the future.

How do I submit a report?

To submit an anonymous or personalised report, start by clicking the "Submit Report" button located on the top left-hand side of our information page.

The reporting process consists of three steps:

1. First, read the section providing information on protecting your identity. To avoid spam, the system will give a security query.
2. On the "Report" page, you will be asked to use your own words to describe the incident you are reporting – using no more than 5000 letters, or a fully completed DIN A4 sheet of paper – and to answer specific questions. You may also submit files of up to 5MB to support your report. Please remember that documents may contain information about their author. After you have submitted your report, you will be given a reference number as proof that you submitted this specific report.
3. Finally, you will be asked to set up your own secure postbox, allowing communication on the case while remaining anonymous.

The electronic BKMS^® Incident Reporting's technology will maintain your anonymity to the extent permitted by FIFA regulations as long as you do not submit any information that contains your personal identity.

What is a postbox and how do I open one?

Once you have submitted a report, you will have the option to create a postbox, which will be used to communicate with you, answer your questions and keep you posted on the status of your report, while maintaining your anonymity.

You will be able to access it via the "Login" button. Prior to opening your postbox, you will have to complete a security procedure that ensures that only the authorised person - you - has access.

How can I receive a reply, yet at the same time remain anonymous?

FIFA uses the BKMS^® Incident Reporting to protect the reporting person's identity. The system's anonymity protection function is certified.

You select your own personal pseudonym and password that you used to set up your postbox. Encryption and other special security methods ensure that your report will remain anonymous at all times.

The person in charge of your report should contact you via your postbox within five working days to provide initial information about the status of your report or to ask further questions if certain details need to be clarified. Please check your postbox afterwards at agreed times for new messages.

What are human rights?

Human rights are inherent to all human beings because they are born free and equal in dignity and rights. As a rule of thumb, human rights may be violated if a person suffers harm from someone else and if that impact does not feel right. If this is the case in your situation, you may decide to report the case and we will then assess in more detail whether and how the reported situation involves a human rights violation within the scope of FIFA’s responsibility and commitment.

FIFA's commitment embraces all internationally recognised human rights, including those contained in the International Bill of Human Rights (consisting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) and the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.

Where FIFA may have adverse impacts on the human rights of people belonging to specific groups or populations that require special attention, it will also consider other international standards and principles that elaborate on the rights of such individuals, including in particular those standards concerning indigenous peoples, women, national, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, children, disabled people, migrant workers and their families and human rights defenders.

Moreover, where FIFA’s operations extend to situations of armed conflict, it will also respect the standards of international humanitarian law.

You can find more about human rights at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights website: https://www.ohchr.org

Can my report be rejected?

This mechanism is created to help us address adverse human rights impacts associated with the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. All reports will be assessed as to whether they fall within this scope.

Reports may be rejected if they clearly fall outside of this scope and FIFA’s responsibilities. Also, we may reject anonymous reports that don’t provide a reasonable initial basis to understand the situation and where there is no possibility for us to follow up and clarify. Furthermore, obviously spurious reports will be rejected.

Reports that are not associated with the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 but concern other activities by FIFA will be assessed in accordance with FIFA’s wider human rights commitments. Where appropriate, they will be addressed through separate procedures.

Can I use other reporting mechanisms?

Before you report an incident to us, you may want to use other mechanisms.

Whilst it is not possible to list all the different mechanisms inside or outside Qatar, you may consider the following:

Outside Qatar you may want to use a complaint or reporting mechanism that is organized by our business relations, e.g. a complaint mechanism established by your employer or covers the activities of your employer. Sometimes, you may find a national human rights institution (e.g. a human rights commission or a public human rights defender office) that are able to investigate your case and provide you with a solution. FIFA also offers other reporting mechanisms for the media and human rights defenders or if you want to report about unethical behavior by football officials.

In Qatar, you could complain to the National Human Rights Committee of Qatar (see https://nhrc-qa.org/en/submit-a-complaint/), if your complaint concerns e.g. the police of Qatar or a private company. If you are a worker in Qatar and you work for one of the local suppliers to the FIFA World Cup 2022 Qatar, you may want to use the Supreme Committee Workers’ Welfare reporting mechanism: https://secure.ethicspoint.eu/domain/media/en/gui/104108/index.html

If you are working for FIFA or the company FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 LLC based in Qatar and have experienced human rights violations, then you may use their respective internal whistleblower mechanisms.

What can I expect from FIFA, when I have submitted a report?

You can expect FIFA to take any information you may have shared seriously and make a genuine effort to assess and address the reported incident in accordance with our dedicated procedures.

FIFA’s role in assessing and managing your report depends on FIFA’s relationship with your case.

If FIFA or the company FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 LLC based in Qatar has caused or contributed to the potential violation, we will be obliged to assess the complaint, engage with you to find a solution and ensure that the agreed solution is effectively implemented. We may assess that we have not caused or contributed to the alleged violation or we do not believe that a violation has occurred, then we will believe that we can contribute to the prevention, mitigation or remediation of the impact on the human right. We may also ask a third party to review our assessment in particular if the matter concern allegations of severe human rights violations or impacts.

If your report concerns a business relationship for instance a supplier to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 inside or outside Qatar, a sponsor or the state of Qatar, we will assess your case and with your consent refer the case to another relevant reporting mechanism or request our business relationship to assess the case and find a solution with you. We will hold the business relationship accountable for providing you with an effective process and a remedy that is effective. We will not take over the handling of the report from our business relationship but use our position to assist you and push our business relationship to address your report effectively.

Regardless, the nature of the relationship with the alleged violations, we will ensure that you are informed about the process from the start and the expected time line; that we frequently are communicating with you and will follow up on your case with our business relationships. We aim to be an effective partner to you in handling your concern.

In case you report a case where you have become aware about a potential human right violation of a 3rd person, that you are not representing, then we will handled the matter as effectively as possible. We will inform you about the outcome of our efforts with the respect of rights of the persons involved.

Who can help me, if I want to report an incident and do I have to report in English?

Our reporting system does not require you to be assisted by a professional advisor or a lawyer and we intend to communicate in your language or a language that your understand. However, sometimes it may help to make use of local NGOs or an international NGO or have someone to help you in submitting your report in one of the main languages. International NGOs could be Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch, but you may want contact a trade union if your report relate to your employment with one of our suppliers.