CSHR Participates In The FISU World Forum 2024 With a Keynote Speech On Human Rights In University Sport

Author - Daniela Heerdt

Centre for Sport and Human Rights

Head of Education and Research Dr Daniela Heerdt represented the Centre for Sport and Human Rights at the FISU World Forum 2024 in Zagreb, a 4 day conference organized by the Croatian Academic Sports Federation in collaboration with the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The forum brought together students, university sports officials, and industry professionals from around the world to discuss and promote the development of university sports and physical activity.2

The underlying theme of this year’s forum was "University Sport: Creating a Better World" and Dr Heerdt delivered a keynote speech as part of the opening session of the forum on sport and human rights and the role of education in advancing the sport and human rights movement. "Universities around the world are promoting innovation, sharing knowledge, engagement, and education. So I couldn’t think of a better place to advance the sport and human rights movement than in university sports" she explained. 

 

 

Full text of the keynote speech is available below.

Thank you for the warm welcome, it’s an honor to be standing here and speaking to such a distinguished audience including FISU president and officials, presidents of sport organisations around the world, politicians, athletes, and students from around the world.

My name is Daniela Heerdt and I’m a researcher and consultant on sports and human rights. My journey in this field started almost 10 years ago, at the university actually, where I embarked on a doctorate study on the topic of mega-sporting events and human rights. And currently, I am the Head of Research and Education at the Centre for Sport and Human Rights, and a researcher at the TMC Asser Institute.

Two brief sentences on the Centre and the Asser Institute. First, the Centre is a human rights organisation for the world of sport, launched in 2018, as the result of a multi-stakeholder initiative focused on MSEs and human rights and by now working more broadly on the link between sport and human rights, together with sport bodies, governments, civil society, sponsors, broadcasters, and more. The Asser Institute is a research institute focusing on European and international law, where I lead the work on sport and human rights in the form of conducting research and organising professional education formats on the topic.

Until about 5 years ago, when I introduced myself in this way, very often people had no idea what I was talking about. Sport and human rights was not a combination that people knew or could imagine what it means. But that changed significantly, with a big sporting event happening in 2022, the FIFA Men’s World Cup in Qatar. 

As most of you will know, this FIFA World Cup was one of the most controversial World Cups in terms of the criticism the host country was exposed to in the run up to the event, most of which was focused on the exploitation of migrant workers who were building the infrastructure necessary for the event, but also those workers in the services and hospitality sector. And you might also remember that in the final year and months before the tournament, the topic of the rights of people from the LGBTQI+ community was added. Most of that criticism came from journalists, civil society and human rights organisations, but also governments and football associations joined and voiced their concerns and opinions. This was really unprecedented in many ways, and so was actually the reaction to that criticism by the Qatari government. While the situation on the ground was and is far from ideal, this was the first time ever in the modern history of mega-sporting events that a host government changed national laws related to the protection of human rights, in this case labour rights, in reaction to the international pressure and criticism it received. As a result, at least on paper, many of the factors that facilitated exploitation of workers had been eradicated. Not a lot of people know that, and like I said, the implementation of these changes has been difficult and slow. But nevertheless it is a significant development, and one that shows how sport and in this case sport events, due to the international attention and spotlight they get, can be a force for good, a force for change and greater protection of the rights of people. 

And this is what I want to focus on in my talk today, sport’s potential to be a force for good and "better world", as the theme of this forum says. And as you might have guessed by now, I am an active and loud member of the sport and human rights movement, and do believe that, even though it might seem ironic, without Qatar, this movement would perhaps not be where it is today.

So what I am trying to do with my research and consultancy work is to help sports to be more responsible when it comes to human rights, to make sport even better for the people that are participating in it, as fans, as athletes, as volunteers, as coaches, as officials, as staff of sport bodies, as hosting authorities of sporting events, as sponsors, as broadcasters, as journalists, as well as people who may not be direct participants but whose lives are impacted by sports and sports events - construction workers, hospitality workers, local communities, you name it.

And what I would like to talk to you about in the next 30 minutes, and hope to convince you of, is that University sports and the University sports movement is the perfect place to lead by example and become a responsible sport movement that respects and protects the human rights of all involved.

I will try to do that by talking first about the WHAT, so what do I mean by responsible sport and human rights, then about the WHY, so why this is important, why this is important right now, and finally about the HOW, how sports and university sports in particular, can embrace the concept of responsible sport and lead by example.

 

I. Responsible Sport and Human Rights

 

You’ve heard me say human rights a lot now and before I continue my story, I want to make sure that we are on the same page about what it means or what I mean by it. And this brings me to the first remark I want to make on defining human rights and that it can mean different things to different people at different times or in different places. 

And universities, including university sports, are a great place to experience, explore and celebrate these differences, through research, and through international and cultural exchanges in lecture rooms, study groups, sporting events etc.

On a very general level, human rights of course mean those rights that all of us have (or should have) simply because we are human beings, including rights such as the right to life, the right to be free from torture, the right to privacy, the right to education. 

But when I explain human rights, I usually like to make a difference between human rights in theory and human rights in practice. Human rights in theory covers sources of human rights, so all instruments from the United Nations, but also regional human rights instruments and frameworks. Human rights in practice is much more difficult to grasp and explain, as it is quite contextual and about how we, as individuals, or as groups, experience our rights being guaranteed in everyday life, so university life, or work life, but also in situations where it matters, for instance when we feel treated unfairly, when we have experienced harm. 

So it is important to understand that which human rights are of most value for someone can be different depending on cultural, geographical, religious, or socio-economic background. Whereas in some places of the world the right to vote might be a natural given, in other places certain groups have to fight for it. The same can be said about the right to education, or the right to livelihood, or the right to decent working conditions.

But I think there is one thing that is true for many people around the world, and that is that human rights start in small places close to home, and I would like to quote here Eleanor Roosevelt, who is one of the authors of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

She says …

What this means, basically, is that human rights are about being able to learn and go to school, being able to buy or make food, being able to provide a home for your family, being able to express yourself and your opinions in your everyday life.

And if you look at these examples of small places she mentions, I think it is perfectly possible to add sports or the local sport clubs to it.

We know that sport can impact the whole range of human rights, both positively and negatively. But we also know that there are a number of human rights that are particularly relevant in the sporting context, such as freedom of expression, or the right to not be discriminated against, the right to equal pay for equal work, or the rights of migrant workers as I’ve talked about in my introductory remarks. 

Let me try to give you some more concrete examples. Looking at sports and it’s challenges from a human rights perspective is, for instance:

• about how rules on who gets to participate in certain sports and competitions, leading to the exclusion of certain athletes, is not just a matter of fair play and sporting rules, but actually a matter of access, diversity and inclusion and the right to be treated equally and not be discriminated against.
• or it is about the requirements linked to doping tests that athletes have to comply with, and this not just being a sport integrity issue, but actually a matter of right to privacy, or even right to health.
• or about the treatment of local communities that are displaced for a sporting event, and how this is not just a question of building sustainable sporting events, but actually a matter of housing rights, but also with potential impacts on education, health, work and dignity of these people.
• or it is about treating a case of a volunteer that is experiencing harassment at a sporting event they are volunteering at not as isolated case, but actually being prepared for such cases, and ensuring access to remedy, so mechanisms and processes designed to report and make good the harm suffered.

Let’s now connect this with the notion of responsible sport. What you see here is a graphic developed by a colleague of mine at the Centre for Sport and Human Rights, and it shows nicely how the idea of responsible sport connects with human rights in and through sport, and how both are the foundations of sustainable and more impactful sport, as well as related to topics such as sport integrity, safe sport, but also higher up sport for development and peace, and sport and climate action for instance.

As such, the term 'responsible sport' is not new and has been used in different ways in different contexts. How we, and by we I mean the Centre for Sport and Human Rights and our community use it is based on an understanding of 'responsible' as being fully aligned with international human rights standards. This includes frameworks such as the United Nations Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights, which have become very influential in the sport and human rights movement in the past years. The basic idea of these principles is the notion of 'responsible business conduct' and that for businesses to maintain a 'social licence to operate', they have the responsibility to respect human rights throughout all operations and activities. 

And it is this expectation that we are raising towards sports! It is not about making sports responsible for all human rights harms that happen in the world or in a society, but about helping sports understand where it can have a positive impact on human rights, in terms of respecting and promoting them, and that where it impacts negatively human rights of people, these impacts need to be prevented or remedied. Looking at both sides is key to make sure that sports keeps its status and meaning in society, and its social licence to operate. 

In many ways raising this expectation towards sport is not too far-fetched, but instead based on what sport itself claims to be - a common public good. Why I would like to explain now, moving on to the next part of my talk.

II. Why Sport and Human Rights?

What you see on the slide here is a quote from Nelson Mandela from a speech he gave at the Men’s Rugby World Cup final in 1995. Some of you might know these words and the reason I’m sharing it here is because it summarizes nicely the position sport has in our society, and the hopes and expectations attached to that, and that with such a position also comes a certain responsibility.

And while this quote links sport’s unique power to change to the issue of discrimination, it is true for human rights more generally. Again, it is important that we understand the link between sport and human rights both in a positive and negative dimension. While on the one hand, many of the issues that sport is struggling with are examples of its negative human rights impacts, on the other hand, sport offers a great platform to promote human rights, not just to raise awareness, but to actually break down barriers and fight inequalities. 

It is often said that sport is a mirror of society, meaning that societal issues are reflected in sports. But this mirror actually works both ways, and sport can lead by example and be a place for trying to solve these issues and reflect lessons learned into wider society.  

You might still ask why should sport do that, and think of sport as being a place mainly for athletic performance, competition, fun, fitness, and more, but not human rights. 

However, if you actually look at the values that sport promotes, you will find that many of these values are very closely related to human rights. In most statutes of sport federations you will find references to fundamental values such as respect, equality, unity, non-discrimination, and these are of course underlying principles of human rights. In fact, most statues of international federations and many national ones have specific provisions on non-discrimination, and the same is true for the FISU Statues. 

And it is not just sport’s mission and values. It is also sport’s impact and legacy, which are linked to human rights in the way that sport is trying to create lasting benefits for a community. Similarly, sport integrity issues, and many of the relevant policies and regulations, deal with questions that can and need to be assessed from a human rights-based approach, in addition to the sporting perspective. And also the way sport develops, and how it is used for development, and development and peace, has links to the respect for and the promotion and protection of human rights.

What I want to say with all this is that there are many ways in which sport and human rights are aligned.

If you are still not convinced, then I would like to draw your attention to some recent studies on athletes, which next to fans, volunteers, coaches, journalists, local communities, workers, and others, are one of the key stakeholder groups within sports of course. I know there are some athletes in the room today and I don’t want to speak for you, but you might have participated in one of these studies, or can relate to the outcomes. 

The three studies I would like to present to you look at different but related things. On the left side, you have the results of a study conducted by the World Players Association, which is the global body representing the voice of professional athletes. The study was published in 2021 and relies on data received through an online questionnaire, in which 300 athletes over 18 years old from different countries and sports participated. The outcomes were that:

• 37% of athletes reported having experienced one form of physical abuse at least once as a child in sport.
• 61% of athletes reported having experienced one form of emotional abuse at least once as a child in sport.
• 69% of athletes were not always aware they had rights when they were children in sports.
• 51% of athletes were never aware of a union/player association before the age of 18.

In the middle, you see the results of a study conducted by Yetsa Tuakli-Wosornu and Sheree Bekker, among others, published in 2022, from a web-based survey among almost 1200 athletes, most of them elite and competing, from 70 different countries, and across 49 different sports. Their results show that:

• 78.5% were unaware of any athletes’ rights declarations, 
• And that gender influenced participants’ confidence in acting on their rights in sport significantly, in a way that male athletes under a certain age were more likely to accept pressure and violence from a coach, and female athletes were less likely to agree that if they experience behaviour they deem inappropriate, they can freely seek assistance without fear of consequences or retaliation in their sports setting,
• It also showed that player union membership increased confidence in freely expressing one’s opinion in sports settings,
• And that generally athletes’ rights-related awareness, knowledge and beliefs were disconnected.

And finally on the right, you have some numbers from a more recent study by the World Players Association, which relies on data received through interviews with executives from player associations, results of a survey filled out by almost 100 Player Development Manages, and a number of focus group discussions with the same group. It highlighted that 

• While Player Development Managers (PDM) agree that abuse is prevalent, they don’t feel that their organisation is prepared to deal with it. In fact, 56% agreed that cases of abuse are ‘prevalent’ in their sporting context, 
• 22% said it is 'extremely prevalent', 
• And 66% felt that their organisation was either unprepared or only somewhat prepared to address sexual abuse.

What these numbers and studies show is that we have plenty of evidence of human rights issues in sports, here specifically related to athletes rights and abuse in sport. They even hint at ways to address these issues, such as in this case how union membership helps to raise athletes' awareness of athletes' human rights. 

And while this is just one example of available data related to human rights issue in sports, there are other studies and datasets and evidence available, for other stakeholder groups or human rights issues, such as studies looking at human rights impacts of mega-sporting events, which increased significantly in the last couple of years. 

The point I want to make is that we have the data, and it is telling us a lot, but we have to get better at using that research and knowledge for working towards change and a better world of sport.

III. How to work towards a world of responsible sport that fully respects human rights?

And I would like to finish my talk by coming to the question of how to achieve that, and applying this thinking to university sports, and reflecting a bit on the role that university sports can play in creating a better sporting world.

Before I turn to my own thoughts on this, I want to briefly share some results of a very small study that I ‘ve done among colleagues in preparation for this talk today.

So I asked my colleagues to answer the question ‘what role can university sports play in advancing sport and human rights?’ and received quite a long list of things, which I can happily share with anyone that is interested. But here I just want to show you some of the highlights, such as:

“MODELLING THE CULTURE OF RESPONSIBLE SPORTS GOVERNANCE WE’D WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD OUTSIDE”

“SPORT STUDENTS AND LOCAL GRASSROOTS HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS / STUDENT HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS TO SET UP JOINT PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES, SHARE LEARNING, PEER-LEARNING AND DO PROJECTS TOGETHER”

“YOUNG ATHLETES TO BECOME HUMAN RIGHTS CHAMPIONS IN THE COMMUNITY WITH SUPPORT OF THEIR PEERS”

and finally a very direct and practical one: 

“FISU to develop a human rights policy for its World University Games, for instance” 

Like I said, the list is longer, but I now would like share with you some common themes and threads that I identified when reviewing all the answers I received:

1. Innovation on responsible sport practices, through research and experimentation, and being a model for a world of sport that fully respects human rights
2. Sharing knowledge and findings of such research and experiments with the rest of the world of sports
3. Engage student athletes, coaches, and other staff to raise their awareness but also include their perspectives
4. And finally education through integration of sport and human rights into relevant study programmes and formats, such as courses, workshops, debates, case studies, field trips, and more.

These key terms, innovation, sharing knowledge, engagement, and education, are the foundations of universities around the world. And I couldn’t agree more with what my colleagues came up with. So for me, there is no better place to advance the sport and human rights movement than in university sports. 

I personally have been on a bit of a mission for the past couple of years, as I believe that one of the key ways to move the sport and human rights movement forward and make it sustainable is indeed through education. And I’ve led many initiatives to develop programmes, courses, masterclasses, teaching resources, and more on sport and human rights. And it is very exciting to see that this field is slowly growing and there are more and more courses being offered to better understand the link between sport and human rights, and in particular sport’s responsibility to respect and protect human rights. 

I would like to end my talk by coming back to what I shared with you in the beginning, how 5 years ago not a lot of people understood my area of work and looked a bit lost when I said I work in sports and human rights. 

Luckily, for me and for others, this changed significantly in recent years, which is the result of hard work of various actors within the sport ecosystem, including our own work at the Centre for Sport and Human Rights but also at the Asser Institute.

Examples of this work include:

• developing resources and educational formats on sport and human rights, such as a handbook on MSEs and human rights that was published last year, or the Global Sport and Human Rights Academy including e-learning courses, in-person and online summer courses on the topic, 
• or the launch of an entire Global Sport and Human Rights Research Network which is growing steadily, 
• but also our very practical work in helping sport bodies to understand their human rights responsibilities and embed that into their work and organisation, as we’ve helped a number of sport bodies and event organisers now with developing human rights policies and action plans.

And the best thing is that we start to see changes where it matters the most, on the ground in sports, and at sporting events. The Paris Olympic and Paralympics are the first Olympics and Paralympics to be organised with human rights requirements in the host city contract and with a human rights policy in place. The same is true for the Men’s EUROs that took place in June this year. The Qatar World Cup was the first World Cup with almost 100 human rights volunteers on the ground. This past December, the German National Olympic Committee has adopted a human rights policy, as to my knowledge, the first NOC worldwide. 

There is much more to add to this list and of course the fact that I am here today talking to you about sport and human rights these past 30 minutes is proof of that as well and it shows that the university sport movement is seriously considering their role and contribution to creating a better world, a world of sport in which respect for human rights builds the foundation for inclusive, accessible, equal, sustainable, impactful and collaborative university sports.

Thank you very much for your attention!