Amnesty International called for FIFA and nations vying to host the 2030 and 2034 World Cups to commit to binding agreements and legal reforms to avert human rights violations linked to the tournaments.
The organization highlighted "serious human rights" risks in the bids, as FIFA awarded the 2030 World Cup to Morocco, Spain and Portugal, and Saudi Arabia stands as the sole bidder for the 2034 edition.
"FIFA should ensure a rigorous and transparent bidding process, based on meaningful stakeholder participation, including genuinely independent human rights risk assessments and comprehensive human rights strategies," the human rights organization Amnesty said.
"FIFA should be prepared not to award the rights to host the World Cup until such agreements are made, and until it is clear that human rights violations can and will be prevented, mitigated, and remedied."
Amnesty said the commitments must prevent human rights violations in relation to "labor rights, discrimination, housing, freedom of expression, policing, and privacy" before finalizing a decision to approve any bid.
FIFA had included human rights standards as part of the bidding requirements for the two World Cups, but Amnesty fears single bids for each tournament undercut their leverage to ensure there are no violations.
FIFA had set a July deadline for the submission of bids for the 2034 World Cup, which will be evaluated later this year, while the hosts will be officially appointed in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Amnesty said accident rates at construction projects in Spain and Portugal are above EU levels, while discrimination in stadiums in Spain is an issue as they highlighted the racism suffered by Real Madrid forward Vinicius Jr.
They also said Morocco and Portugal must increase the number of labor inspectors by over 50% to meet International Labour Organization (ILO) benchmarks.
Amnesty said they have shared their report with FIFA. Reuters has contacted FIFA and the football associations of the countries bidding for the World Cup for comment.
Amnesty said the risks associated with hosting the 2034 tournament in Saudi Arabia are of a "different magnitude and severity" that will test FIFA's commitment to its human rights policies.
Amnesty researcher Dana Ahmed said that although they were allowed to do research on migrant workers in Qatar, which hosted the 2022 World Cup, leading to several reforms, they have not had any access in Saudi Arabia.
"It is extremely difficult to do research from the outside," she told reporters.
Reuters has contacted the Saudi Ministry of Sport for comment.