Human rights
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. Women and LGBTQ+ people face legal and social discrimination. The UN has issued hundreds of human rights recommendations to Qatar.
As of 2025, foreign workers make up around 91% of Qatar's population, constituting around 95% of its labour force, and according to the International Labour Organization, Qatar does not consider this population as "migrant workers", but rather as "guests" or "non-Qataris".
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. Following a massive increase in scrutiny after Qatar's controversial election to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup in 2010, the government has announced many steps of reform, including announcing multiple times that the Kafala system has been effectively abolished. 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. 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."
As of 2026, women and girls in Qatar are still subject to extensive legal and social discrimination under a male guardianship system. 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". Married women can by default travel without permission, but a male guardian can petition a court to issue a travel ban.
Both Qatari and non-Qatari women are affected by a widening wage gap. They are paid 25% to 50% less than men, despite the fact that their working hours are comparable. 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.
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. 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.
Many women who get pregnant with an illegitimate child are jailed. 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. Despite the effort of embassies, many still land in jail. 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.
Homosexual acts are illegal and can be punished by death. However, there is no such evidence that the death penalty has been given for same-sex relations in practice.
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." 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.
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.
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. 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. 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. 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.
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.
