Call for papers: FIFA and human rights - Impacts, policies, responsibilities

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit paper abstracts for a conference on the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and human rights. The conference, organised by the Asser Institute and the Netherlands Network for Human Rights Research (NNHRR), will take place at the Asser Institute in The Hague on 8 May 2019.

FIFA underwent an intense reform process in the past years, after a being in the spotlight for human rights violations and risks surrounding its activities, namely the working conditions and human rights situation of construction workers of the world cup 2022 to be hosted in Qatar.

FIFA being a global actor with big impact on players, fans, journalists, construction workers and citizens of World Cup host countries, adopted the following changes:

• Embracing the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs);
• Including human rights in its Statutes;
• Embracing the UNGPs;
• Adopting new bidding rules including human rights requirements;
• And introducing a Human Rights Advisory Board.

The Asser Institute’s one-day conference aims to take a deeper look at FIFA’s impact on human rights and critically investigate the measures it has adopted to deal with that impact. At the conference we will discuss the potential avenues available to hold FIFA (legally or otherwise) accountable for human rights violations. We invite researchers and academically-minded practitioners from various disciplines (law, political science, sociology, anthropology, and history) to submit abstracts for the conference. The abstracts should tackle one of the following questions:

- FIFA’s human rights impacts on a variety of actors and places
- FIFA’s human rights commitments
- FIFA’s responsibilities for human rights violations that occur in the context of its activities
- FIFA’s constitutionalisation and its limits

How to submit your abstract?
Send your abstract of no more than 300 words and your CV to A.Duval@asser.nl no later than 30 January 2019. We will communicate the selection of abstracts by 15 February and draft papers will be due by 15 April 2019.
For more details and information on the call for papers click here.