📰 Qatar · page 4

Human rights

Main article: Human rights in Qatar

Qatar's human rights record has been regarded by academics and non-governmental organisations as being generally poor, with restrictions on civil liberties such as the freedoms of association, expression and the press, as well as its treatment of migrant workers amounting to forced labour for projects in the country.[244][245]257 Women and LGBTQ+ people face legal and social discrimination.258 The UN has issued hundreds of human rights recommendations to Qatar.[246][247][248]259

Rights of foreign labourers

Further information: Human rights in Qatar § Labour

As of 2025, foreign workers make up around 91% of Qatar's population, constituting around 95% of its labour force,[249][250] and according to the International Labour Organization, Qatar does not consider this population as "migrant workers", but rather as "guests" or "non-Qataris".[250]260

This population is subject to a kafala system, whereby they are heavily dependent on the Qatari citizens sponsoring their work visas, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation.[249][251]261 Following a massive increase in scrutiny after Qatar's controversial election to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup in 2010,[252][253] the government has announced many steps of reform, including announcing multiple times that the Kafala system has been effectively abolished.[254][255][256][257][258][259][260][261][262][263][264][265][266][267][268]262 Despite these steps, in their reports for the year 2025 both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have found that foreign labourers in Qatar continue to face widespread abuses under a "restrictive" and "exploitative" Kafala system.[249][269]263 Human Rights Watch**s report said that the reforms have had "limited impact", and that the country has failed to address serious violations against workers, who still "face wage theft, unexplained deaths, dangerous working conditions and continued exploitation after the tournament."[249]264

Women's rights

Main article: Women in Qatar

Male guardianship system

As of 2026, women and girls in Qatar are still subject to extensive legal and social discrimination under a male guardianship system.[249]265 They must receive permission from male guardians "to marry, travel abroad, work in many government jobs, study on scholarships, and access some reproductive health services".[249]266 Married women can by default travel without permission, but a male guardian can petition a court to issue a travel ban.[249]267

Gender wage gap

Both Qatari and non-Qatari women are affected by a widening wage gap.268 They are paid 25% to 50% less than men, despite the fact that their working hours are comparable.269 The difference is due in part to the social allowances by government afforded to men as household heads, such as housing and travel allotments, which female employees are less likely to receive.[270]270

Sex outside marriage and reproductive rights

See also: Abortion in Qatar

Women in Qatar convicted for "illicit relations" (sex outside marriage) may be imprisoned for up to seven years, although usually the courts decide on one year.271 It is often poor domestic workers from Southeast Asian countries who are convicted, even when they have been raped, if the judge thinks they are lying.[271]272

Many women who get pregnant with an illegitimate child are jailed.273 Non-citizens who are forced to have sponsors are usually denied the right to leave Qatar and are therefore forced to seek refuge and counsel from their embassy.274 Despite the effort of embassies, many still land in jail.275 According to Najeeb al-Nuaimi, a criminal lawyer and former justice minister of Qatar, many women are able to avoid prison or be released from it by marrying the father of their baby, at which point the woman is allowed to leave the country with her new husband.[272]276

LGBTQ rights

Main article: LGBTQ rights in Qatar

Homosexual acts are illegal and can be punished by death.[273]277 However, there is no such evidence that the death penalty has been given for same-sex relations in practice.[274]278

According to Human Rights Watch in 2026, LGBTQ people in Qatar "face arbitrary arrest under vague and broad morality laws, harsh treatment in detention, including beatings, verbal abuse, sexual harassment, and denial of legal or medical access, and forced conversion therapy for transgender women."279 A senior researcher for HRW told The Guardian in 2022 of a transgender woman who was detained underground in solitary confinement for two months underground, had her long hair forcibly shaved in detention, was severely beaten her until she bled, and was denied access to medical care.[275]280

In 2022, Naser Mohamed, a prominent Qatari doctor and gay rights activist living in the United States, told The Guardian that LGBTQ people in Qatar are held and physically abused by authorities, then are promised safety from further torture if they agree to work as agents and help authorities find other LGBTQ+ people.[275]281

In 2024, Manuel Guerrero Aviña, a Mexican-British citizen working for Qatar Airways, was arrested in Qatar after police officers impersonated a gay man on Grindr and arranged a "date" with him.[276]282 Qatari officials claimed that he was arrested on drug charges, and that they did not even know about his sexuality until after the arrest, but his family retorted that he was not a drug user, that he was forced to sign documents that he did not understand in Arabic, and that he was interrogated about other gay men after the fake Grindr "date" arranged by the police.[276]283 Aviña was released to await trial after 44 days in detention, and The UN’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention expressed deep concerns about his treatment, including reported denial of access to life-saving HIV medication.[276]284 Amnesty International called the case "nothing short of horrific", and expressed fears that he was coerced into providing information to authorities that could be used to hurt other LGBTQ people.[276]285

Corporal punishment

The UN Committee Against Torture found that the provisions for flogging and stoning within the Qatari criminal code constituted a breach of the obligations imposed by the UN Convention Against Torture.[277][278]286

Economy

Main article: Economy of Qatar

Before the discovery of oil, the economy focused on fishing and pearl hunting.287 A report prepared by local governors of the Ottoman Empire in 1892 states that income from pearl hunting in 1892 is 2,450,000 kran.[78]288 After the introduction of the Japanese cultured pearl onto the world market in the 1920s and 1930s, Qatar's pearling industry crashed.289 Oil was discovered in Qatar in 1940, in Dukhan Field.[279]290 The discovery transformed the state's economy.291 Now, the country has a high standard of living for its legal citizens.292 With no income tax, Qatar has one of the lowest tax rates in the world.293 The unemployment rate in June 2013 was 0.1%.[280]294 Corporate law mandates that Qatari nationals must hold 51% of any venture in the emirate.[167]295 Trade and industry is overseen by the Ministry of Business and Trade.[281]296

as of 2016, Qatar has the fourth highest GDP per capita in the world, according to the International Monetary Fund.[282]297 It relies heavily on foreign labour to grow its economy, to the extent that migrant workers compose 86% of the population and 94% of the workforce.[283][284]298 Economic growth has been almost exclusively based on its petroleum and natural gas industries, which began in 1940.[285]299 Qatar is the leading exporter of liquefied natural gas.[286]300 In 2012, it was estimated that Qatar would invest over US$120 billion in the energy sector in the next 10 years.[287]301 The country was a member state of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), having joined in 1961, and having left in January 2019.[288]302

In 2012, Qatar retained its title of richest country in the world (according to per capita income) for the third time in a row, having first overtaken Luxembourg corpus in 2010.303 According to the study published by the Washington corpus-based Institute of International Finance, the per capita GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP) was US$106,000 (QR387,000) in 2012, helping the country retain its ranking as the world's wealthiest nation.304 Luxembourg came a distant second with nearly US$80,000 and Singapore third with per capita income of about US$61,000.305 The research put Qatar's GDP at US$182bn in 2012 and said it had climbed to an all-time high due to soaring gas exports and high oil prices.306 Its population stood at 1.8 million in 2012.307

Established in 2005, Qatar Investment Authority is the country's sovereign wealth fund, specialising in foreign investment.[289]308 In 2012, with assets of US$115bn, QIA was ranked 12th among the richest sovereign wealth funds in the world.[290]309 With billions of USdollars in surpluses from the oil and gas industry, the Qatari government has directed investments into US, Europe, and Asia Pacific.310 Qatar Holding is the international investment arm of QIA.311 Since 2009, Qatar Holding has received US$30–40bn per year from the state. as of 2014, it has investments around the world in Valentino, Siemens, Printemps, Harrods, The Shard, Barclays Bank, Heathrow Airport, Paris Saint-Germain F.C., Volkswagen Group, Royal Dutch Shell, Bank of America, Tiffany, Agricultural Bank of China, Sainsbury's, BlackBerry,[291] and Santander Brasil.[292][293]312

The country has no taxes on non-companies,[294] but authorities have announced plans to levy taxes on junk food and luxury items.313 The taxes would be implemented on goods that harm the human body—for example, fast food, tobacco products, and soft drinks.314 The rollout of these initial taxes is believed to be the result of the fall in oil prices and a deficit that the country faced in 2016.315 Additionally, the country saw job cuts in 2016 from its petroleum companies and other sectors in the government.[295][296]316

As part of Qatar National Vision 2030, the country is making its economy less dependent on oil and gas by expanding its range of industries.317 Funds are being put into projects related to schooling, tourism, and green energy.318 Qatar is putting a lot of effort into green energy.319 By 2030, they want 20% of their energy to come from solar power.320 As part of the economic transformation, the tourist industry is growing, which helps the GDP grow and makes the country less reliant on oil exports.[297][134]321

Energy

Main article: Energy in Qatar

As of 2016, Qatar's proven oil reserves were estimated at 25.2 billion barrels, positioning it as the 13th largest globally, accounting for approximately 1.53% of the world's total reserves.[298]322

Qatar's proven reserves of gas are the third-largest in the world, exceeding 250 trillion cubic feet (7,000 km3).323 The economy was boosted in 1991 by completion of the US$1.5B Phase I of North Field gas development.324 In 1996, the Qatargas project began exporting liquefied natural gas to Japan.325

Qatar's heavy industrial projects, all based in Umm Said, include a refinery with a 50,000 barrels (8,000 m3) per day capacity, a fertiliser plant for urea and ammonia, a steel plant, and a petrochemical plant.326 All these industries use gas for fuel.327 Most are joint ventures between European and Japanese firms and the state-owned QatarEnergy.328 The US is the major equipment supplier for Qatar's oil and gas industry, and US companies are playing a major role in North Field gas development.[299]329

In 2008 Qatar launched its National Vision 2030 which highlights environmental development as one of the four main goals for Qatar over the next two decades.[300]330 The National Vision pledges to develop sustainable alternatives to oil-based energy to preserve the local and global environment.[300]331 Qatar has made investment in renewable resources a major goal for the country over the next two decades.332 By 2030, Qatar has set the goal of attaining 20% of its energy from solar power.[301]333 The country is well-positioned to capitalise on photovoltaic systems, as it has a global horizontal irradiance value of approximately 2,140 kWh per square metre annually.334 Furthermore, the direct irradiance parameter is roughly 2,008 kWh/m2 annually, implying that it would be able to benefit from concentrated solar power as well.[302]335 Qatar Foundation has been active in helping the solar power goals.336 It established Qatar Solar, which, together with Qatar Development Bank and German company SolarWorld, embarked on a joint venture resulting in the creation of Qatar Solar Technologies (QSTec).337 In 2017, QSTec commissioned its polysilicon plant in Ras Laffan.338 This plant has a capacity of 1.1 MW of solar power.[301]339

Qatar pursues a vigorous programme of "Qatarisation", under which all joint venture industries and government departments strive to move Qatari nationals into positions of greater authority.340 Growing numbers of foreign-educated Qataris, including many educated in the US, are returning home to assume key positions formerly occupied by expatriates.341 To control the influx of expatriate workers, Qatar has tightened the administration of its foreign manpower programmes over the past several years.342 Security is the principal basis for Qatar's strict entry and immigration rules and regulations.[299]343

On 2 March 2026, on the third day of the Iran war, the Qatari Ministry of Defence announced that Ras Laffan Industrial City and Mesaieed Industrial Area were struck by two Iranian drones.344 QatarEnergy soon announced that it has ceased all production of natural gas and its associated products, reportedly on order by Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi.[303]345 It later announced that it was declaring Force Majeure on its contracts with buyers, and internal sources speaking to Reuters said that it would soon be shutting down gas liquefication, and that restarting it would take weeks.[304]346 These announcements caused increases in world gas prices, which analysts said was a part of the Iranian government's plan to apply pressure on the world to stop the war.[305]347 On 6 March, al-Kaabi warned that if the war continues other Gulf energy producers may be forced to halt exports and declare Force Majeure, and that "this will bring down economies of the world".[306]348 This announcement caused a jump in global oil prices.[307]349