Mega-sporting events and human rights: What role can EU sports diplomacy play?

The upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar and its links to human rights violations has been the subject of many debates in the media and beyond. In particular, the respect of migrant workers’ labour rights was at the forefront of much public criticisms directed against FIFA. Similarly, past Olympics in Rio, Sochi or Beijing have also been in the limelight for various human rights issues, such as the lack of freedom of the press, systematic discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or forced evictions. These controversies have led sports governing bodies (SGBs) to slowly embrace human rights as an integral part of their core values and policies. Leading to an increased expectation for SGBs to put their (private) diplomatic capital at the service of human rights by using their leverage vis-à-vis host countries of their mega-sporting events (MSEs). In turn, this also raises the question of the need for the EU to accompany this change by putting human rights at the heart of its own sports diplomacy.

Research collective 
This Multiplier Sporting Event, organised in the framework of the transnational project on ‘Promoting a Strategic Approach to EU Sports Diplomacy’ funded by the Erasmus + Programme, aims to trigger discussions on the role of an EU sports diplomacy in strengthening respect for human rights in the context of MSEs both at home and abroad. It will feature two roundtables focused on the one hand on the diplomatic power and capacity of SGBs to fend for human rights during MSEs and on the other on the EU’s integration of human rights considerations linked to MSEs in its own sports diplomacy.

Programme

13:20 – 13:40 – Welcome and opening speech –Antoine Duval (Asser Institute)
13:40 – 13:50 – Promoting a Strategic Approach to EU Sports Diplomacy - Richard Parrish (Edge Hill University)
13:50 – 14:00 - Introductory remarks - Simon Rofe (SOAS) 

14:00 - 15:30 - Panel 1: Leveraging the Diplomatic Power of the Sports Governing Bodies for Human Rights (Chaired by Antoine Duval (Asser Institute) 

• Lucy Amis (Unicef UK/Institute for Human Rights and Business)
• Guido Battaglia (Centre for Sport and Human Rights)
• Florian Kirschner (World Players Association/UNI Global Union)
• Claire Jenkin (University of Hertfordshire)

15:30 – 16:00 - Coffee Break

16:00 - 17:30 - Panel 2: A Human Rights Dimension for the EU’s Sports Diplomacy? (Chaired by Carmen Perez (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid)

• Arnout Geeraert (Utrecht University)
• Agata Dziarnowska (European Commission)
• Alexandre Mestre (Sport and Citizenship)
• Christian Salm (European Parliamentary Research Service)

17:30 - Reception