A/HRC/44/57/Add.1 this respect. 32 There are reports that domestic workers, including those reporting sexual violence, are particularly affected by such criminalization. 33 Because Islamic legal tradition treats any intimate relations outside of marriage as a crime, the specific circumstances of unmarried women’s pregnancies are deemed irrelevant. 34 Women, including migrant women, who become pregnant outside of marriage are subject to imprisonment both during and after their pregnancies.35 D. Reforms 38. Qatar has implemented significant reforms to the labour and immigration laws governing migrant workers. Previously, Qatari law required migrant workers to obtain approval from their employers to leave the country or ask authorities if the employer refused. Law No. 13 of 201836 amended Law No. 21 of 2015, eliminating the authority of employers to prohibit the majority (but not all) of migrant workers from leaving the country. In 2014, Qatar established the Wage Protection Department at the Labour Inspection Department. 37 Qatar also introduced three labour dispute resolution committees to adjudicate claims or disputes concerning labour-related matters and expedite review of labour complaints.38 Significantly, Qatar also established a workers’ support and insurance fund, whose aims include paying those workers who obtain a favourable judgment from the labour dispute resolution committees but are unable to recover funds from companies. 39 Although the fund is not yet fully operational, the Ministry of Administrative, Development and Social Affairs informed the Special Rapporteur that it would be operational imminently. 39. During the visit, the Special Rapporteur met with representatives of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, who highlighted the range of mechanisms and procedures they have in place to mitigate labour exploitation and ensure satisfactory accommodation and health services for workers involved in World Cup-related construction. Worker representatives she spoke with on one site corroborated the higher quality of labour protections and accommodation relative to the rest of the national lowincome workforce. The measures and safeguards instituted by the Supreme Committee, especially as they relate to timely and reliable wage payments and living conditions, are to be commended. Worker representatives nonetheless highlighted the need for nondiscriminatory minimum wage protections, and for more liberal immigration and labour regulations that reflect the contributions they are making to the country’s national and global prosperity. 40. Notwithstanding the impressive changes that the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy has implemented for its 30,000 workers, similar reforms are urgently needed for the entire construction sector, which comprises about 800,000 workers. 40 Human rights reports also suggest that, notwithstanding the sweeping reforms relating to improving workplace health and safety for World Cup construction sites, there is an ongoing need to 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 10 CEDAW/C/QAT/CO/1, para. 23; and Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, preliminary findings from its visit to Qatar (3–4 November 2019), available from www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/ DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25296&LangID=E. See, inter alia, Amnesty International, “My Sleep is My Break”: Exploitation of Migrant Domestic Workers in Qatar (London, 2014). Available at www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/8000/ mde220042014en.pdf. Santos, “Where pregnancy is a prison sentence”. See Global Detention Project, “Qatar: issues related to immigration detention”. Available from http://ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/MONOGRAPH/107340/132079/F620027197/QatarGBLaw%2013%20(2018)%20Ar%20Eng.revATfinal30Oct18.pdf. See National Human Rights Committee, shadow report submitted to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (2018). See https://portal.www.gov.qa/wps/portal/media-center/news/news-details/ labordisputeresolutioncommitteesstartworktoday. See ILO, “Annual progress report on the technical cooperation programme agreed between the Government of Qatar and the ILO”, document GB.337/INS/5. Human Rights Watch, “Qatar: take urgent action to protect construction workers” (September 2017). Available from www.hrw.org/news/2017/09/27/qatar-take-urgent-action-protect-construction-workers.