Sport and peace: An international law perspective

Sport and peace have an ambiguous relationship. On the one hand, the Olympic Games are intimately connected with the pursuit of peace. They were originally imagined as a place for the people of the world to meet and to peacefully face each other through sport. This ideal is now anchored in international law as, since the nineties, the U.N. General Assembly adopts a Resolution recalling for an Olympic Truce prior to each edition of the Games. Furthermore, in recent times the question of the responsibility of the international sports governing bodies to promote peace (and respect for international law) has come to the fore in the context of the recent armed conflicts. What's more, sport is also a tool of diplomacy on whose terrain conflict sometimes shifts. This conference aims to analyse the issues raised from two angles: 1. sport in the service of peace and 2. sport as an instrument of diplomacy, by bringing together experts in the field.

This event co-organised by the Hague Academy of International Law which is also hosting the conference, the Research Chair on Anti-Doping in Sport of the University of Sherbrooke and the Asser Institute and brings together legal scholars to reflect on the legal dimensions of the intersection between international sport and peace.  

15h50 - Welcome address  

Prof. Jean-Marc Thouvenin, Secretary General of the Academy of International Law  

H. E. Mr François Alabrune, French Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands

16h - Sport in the service of peace 
Chair: Prof. Franck Latty, Université Paris Nanterre 

• Dr. Julie Tribolo-Ferrand, Maître de conférences, Université Côte d’Azur , "30 years of the United Nations using sport to promote peace". 
• The auditors of the Academy of International Law, "The contribution of sports governance bodies to the protection and promotion of human rights". 

16h40  - Sport: A continuation of war through peaceful means?  

Chair: Prof. Patrícia Galvão Teles, Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa 

• Prof. David Pavot, Research Chair on Anti-Doping in Sport, Université de Sherbrooke, “State doping between diplomacy and International law” 
• Dr Antoine Duval, Asser International Sports Law Centre, "The Court of Arbitration for Sport and the Neutralization of the politics of sanctions". 

17h30 - Closing cocktail 

Read the full programme & register.