A/HRC/44/57/Add.1 IV. Economic, social and cultural rights A. Health 45. As the National Human Rights Committee has noted, low-income workers experience serious barriers to accessing health care, which is a human right.45 In some cases, private employers fail to secure the health card that employees require to access public health-care facilities. 46 Some low-income workers reported that even when they are in possession of the requisite health cards, lengthy queues for service are prohibitive, requiring them to arrive at the respective hospital as early as 2 a.m. to join the lines if they expect to receive treatment by 8 or 9 a.m., in advance of work hours. They also reported encountering racially and ethnically discriminatory treatment in the provision of health care, including on account of racial, ethnic and national stereotypes. 46. The workplace health and safety of low-income workers is also a serious issue, in part because of the extreme heat of the Gulf region. Climate conditions in Qatar expose numerous labourers, including those in the construction sector, to heat strain and put them at high risk of heat-related illness or death. The deaths of hundreds of young men between the ages of 25 and 35 years in Qatar is attributed to cardiovascular causes or “natural death” by Qatari authorities.47 However, multiple research studies, including research published in Cardiology in July 2019, reported a strong correlation between average monthly afternoon heat levels and cardiovascular mortality. The group of climatologists and cardiologists reviewed mortality data of 1,354 Nepali migrant workers for the period 2009 and 2017, retrieved from government institutions in Nepal. They concluded that many deaths that were attributed to vague causes, such as cardiac arrest, were most likely due to severe heat stress.48 47. To address health and safety concerns, the Government enacted a work ban in 2007 prohibiting manual labour in unshaded outdoor areas between 11:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. from mid-June to August.49 In 2013, the Government also commissioned an international firm to review migrant labour issues.50 The firm recommended that the Government reform laws to require autopsies for “unexpected sudden deaths”, and that it conduct an independent investigation to examine the cause of death and ascertain the reason for the “seemingly high” number of deaths blamed on cardiac arrest.51 To date, the Government has not implemented these measures. In 2019, a study by the FAME Laboratory for the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Qatar Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs and the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy highlighted the shortcomings of the work ban, and its failure to fully protect workers from heat-related illness. The authors of the study recommended proactive health checks, monitoring and functional assessments at fixed intervals to prevent, diagnose and manage health-related symptoms and chronic diseases among workers. 52 The Supreme Committee, which employs about 4 per cent of the construction work force in Qatar, has implemented many of these safety measures. However, the vast majority of the remaining 96 per cent of the construction industry has not. The Government must take urgent actions to address this failure to reform. 48. During the Special Rapporteur’s visit to the Al-Rayyan stadium, being built by the Supreme Committee, the managerial staff informed her that workers wear cooling suits to reduce the risk of heat stress. They also created worker welfare teams who are responsible 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 12 See National Human Rights Committee, Fourteenth Annual Report: 2018. A/HRC/26/35/Add.1, para. 45. Human Rights Watch, “Qatar: urgently investigate migrant worker deaths” (October 2019). Available at www.hrw.org/news/2019/10/10/qatar-urgently-investigate-migrant-worker-deaths. Bandana Pradhan and others, “Heat stress impacts on cardiac mortality in Nepali migrant workers in Qatar”, Cardiology, vol. 142, No. 4 (July 2019). See https://portal.www.gov.qa/wps/portal/media-center/news/news-details/ molsapostsannouncementonsummerworkinghours. See DLA Piper, Migrant Labour in the Construction Sector in the State of Qatar (April 2014). Ibid., pp. 15 and 89. See Andreas D. Flouris and others, “Assessment of occupational heat strain and mitigation strategies in Qatar” (FAME Laboratory, 2019).