Side event mega sports events and human rights

37th session of the Human Rights Council

Statement by Deputy High Commissioner Kate Gilmore

26 February 2018

There is a long-standing association between international sport and human rights. The IOC Charter predates the UDHR by over half a century, but holds a similar aspiration:

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights  - which turns 70 this year - prohibits discrimination based on race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. The Olympic Charter also emphasises that discrimination of any kind has no place in our lives.

And both documents tell us that Governments have a duty to address inequalities and injustice – including on the playing field. They must give opportunities to everyone.  By doing so, by including all, countries build stronger societies that build on the strengths that each individual can contribute.

As the High Commissioner noted in December, sport brings enjoyment to an untold number of people across the world and across most social, economic and gender divides. Even otherwise divided societies can unite as spectators of big sporting events. There can be economic development opportunities associated with the staging of sporting events, as well as opportunities for overcoming challenges, for examples for persons with disabilities engaging in sport. Recently, the first women’s marathon was held in Afghanistan, providing a unique opportunity for female runners to break out of the confines otherwise imposed on them due to their gender.

However, the High Commissioner also noted that notwithstanding the many positive contributions that sport can make individually and collectively, it is by now widely recognised that there can be a dark underbelly to the world of sport, including when it comes to human rights.

Human rights mechanisms have long documented violations – including evictions of whole communities, often comprising already vulnerable and marginalized people, to make room for sport venues, leading to loss of shelter and livelihoods; cases of attacks and persecution of human rights defenders and others seeking to exercise their rights to freedom of expression and association to protest against sport events, or of journalists seeking to expose corruption and other wrongdoing; cases of migrant workers facing severe exploitation in the construction of sports venues; as well as individual cases of discrimination and abuse on the grounds of race, sexual orientation or religious affiliation. While these types of human rights violations are not unique to the world of sport, they nevertheless require an effective response.

In other words, while sport can be vehicle for promoting human rights, it needs - at the same time - to respect them. This was recognised in the recent decision by the Swiss National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises (themselves aligned with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human rights). The NCP noted that sports bodies themselves have a direct responsibility to respect rights. Sporting organisations have a privileged position - they need to rise above geo-political considerations but this does not mean they should not be accountable.

OHCHR has been a founding member of the Mega-Sporting Events Platform on Human Rights and a member of its Advisory Group. The work of the MSE Platform builds on the important report that Professor John Ruggie undertook for FIFA in 2015. 

I welcome the fact that 4 international sports bodies have made explicit human rights commitments – FIFA, UEFA, IOC and the Commonwealth Games. These commitments entered the bidding rounds of these bodies for future hosts in 2022 (in the case of the Commonwealth), 2024 (for the IOC) and 2026 (for FIFA) but we cannot wait this long to apply human rights to such events.
This why Qatar 2022 is so important. There may not be any contractual obligation on Qatar to apply human rights but there is a very strong moral case to do so. We have all long noted, with great concern, the plight facing migrant workers in countries that operate the Kalafa system. OHCHR notes with interest the recent statements made by the Emir of Qatar that concrete steps are to be taken to end the current system and strengthen the human rights of all workers in the country, and we welcome the ILO mission to Qatar to support these efforts.

I hope the work of the Supreme Committee will set a powerful example to the whole Qatari state and that Qatar itself can set a positive legacy in terms of human rights and a Mega-Sporting Event.

We look forward to the launch of the Centre on Sport and Human Rights in June of this year and to build on the collective action that has brought a diverse range of stakeholders together to protect and respect the human rights of all of those engaged in sport and its activities.