FIFA and human rights symposium

The third symposium on 'FIFA and Human Rights' was led by Dr Antoine Duval, senior researcher at the Asser Institute and head of the Asser International Sports Law Centre. The blogs in this symposium stem from the conference on 'FIFA and Human Rights: Impacts, policies, responsibilities', hosted at the Asser Institute in May 2019.

The World Cup itself has raised the issue of the Fédération International de Football Association (FIFA)'s discrimination against female players through the allocation of much lower prize money than for the men’s competition. This debate demonstrates the relevance, and to some extend urgency, of thinking through FIFA’s human rights impacts, policies and responsibilities. This heightened focus in the public sphere on FIFA and human rights dates back to 2014, when former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and president of Ireland, Mary Robinson, and former UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights, John Ruggie, sent an open letter to the FIFA, presenting a number of recommendations on how FIFA should deal with adverse human rights impacts that arise in the context of their events and activities. Arguably, this letter marked the starting point of FIFA’s own human rights journey. Since then, FIFA underwent a reform process that led to the integration of a number of human rights provisions and policies into FIFA’s regulatory framework. 

  1. FIFA and Human Rights: Introduction to the Symposium - Dr Antoine Duval and Daniela Heerdt 
  2. ‘We need to talk about the kids': FIFA’s children’s rights obligations - Eleanor Drywood 
  3. FIFA’s Eigen-constitutionalization and its limits - Bodo P. Bützle and Lisa Schöddert
  4. Shared International Responsibility for Human Rights Violations: The 2022 World Cup in Qatar - Raquel Regueiro Dubra
  5. Is Bauer the new Bosman? – The implications of the recent jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union for FIFA - Wojciech Lewandowski
  6. The European Court of Human Rights and FIFA: Current Issues and Potential Challenges - Daniel Rietiker
  7. FIFA for Women or Women for FIFA? The Inherent Tensions of FIFA’s Women’s Football Strategy - Michele Krech
  8. The protection of labour rights in professional football under the ICESCR - Jan Łukomski