DEEP DIVE INTO HUMAN RIGHTS
Human rights are the basic rights to which every person in the world is entitled. This applies without distinction of any kind on the basis of “colour, sex, language, religion, political or other conviction, national or social origin, property, birth or other status” (United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, Article 2).
Universal human rights include
- the rights under the International Bill of Human Rights (consisting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights),
- the rights of the European Convention on Human Rights,
- the rights of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union,
- the rights arising from the International Labour Organization's (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, including the eight ILO core labour standards
- and the rights arising from other relevant international human rights agreements such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
Human rights risks at sporting events in Germany – do they even exist?
Arbitrary arrests, torture, exploitation, no free press – what is commonplace in some countries does not exist like that in Germany. The fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution, which include universal human rights, are protected by the state. The state also ensures that third parties – companies, organisations or individuals – respect people's fundamental rights. But that doesn't always work. Ignoring safety regulations can endanger people's lives and health, racism and discrimination can damage and humiliate people, and sexual abuse can hurt and traumatise people. These are just a few examples of risks that can also play a role at sporting events in Germany.
In order to prevent harm to those potentially affected (e.g. visitors, athletes, employees or residents) and at the same time protect those responsible for an event, whether full-time or voluntary, from potential liability consequences, it is essential to systematically analyse risks in advance and deal with them appropriately.
Human rights risks at every sporting event
There is no sporting event without human rights risks. Racism and interpersonal violence can occur anywhere. Risks are not (only) dependent on the size of a sporting event in terms of probability of occurrence and severity. Although there is unlikely to be mass panic at a children's games festival, misjudging the risk of lightning in an approaching thunderstorm can have devastating consequences. There are different risks at every sporting event. It depends on the type of event and the specific circumstances on site.
The good news is that all sporting event organisers have already taken human rights risks into account, but usually not under this heading and, above all, not systematically. Nobody starts from scratch. Rather, the aim is to record risks in full, assess them correctly, recognise gaps in prevention and close them in a targeted manner.
Human rights risk areas at sporting events in Germany
Every sporting event organiser should carry out an individual risk analysis to identify the relevant human rights risks of a sporting event (detailed information can be found in the Human Rights control area). A key component of this is taking into account the perspective of those potentially affected, including athletes, employees, volunteers, the local population and other people whose rights are affected by the event.
Typical risks at sporting events can be clustered into different areas. The following categorisation is by no means exhaustive, but can serve as an aid and orientation for the identification of human rights risks at sporting events.
Categorisation of human rights risk areas
Risks such as:
- Mass panic
- Heat and storms
- Terrorist attack
- Pandemic
Risks such as:
- Payment below minimum wage
- Excessively long working hours
- Precarious working conditions and informal employment at the organiser and in the supply chain
- Impairment of mental health
Risks such as:
- Racism
- Anti-Semitism
- Islamophobia
- Discrimination on the basis of gender
- Discrimination against people with disabilities
Risks such as:
- Sexualised violence
- Harassment
- Noise/drunkenness in public spaces
- Brawl
- Hate speech/online violence
Risks such as:
- Long distances for people with limited mobility
- Complex language
- Unsuitability for children, lack of nappy-changing facilities
- High ticket prices
Risks such as:
- Access restrictions for media representatives
- Refusal of entry (visa)
- Restricting the expression of opinions by athletes and visitors
Risks such as:
- Misuse of personal image data
- Misuse of personal information
- Inappropriate surveillance without consent
Taking responsibility for human rights – how does that work?
In 2011, the United Nations adopted the ‘UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights’ (UN Guiding Principles) as an instrument for managing human rights risks. They emphasise the duty of states to protect human rights. However, they also require companies to respect human rights in the course of their activities. Organised sport is increasingly picking up on this: In Germany, the German Football Association (DFB) was the first association to do this with a human rights policy. The DOSB is now also working on such a basis. Others, such as the German Lacrosse Association (DLaxV), also organise their association activities accordingly.
The UN Guiding Principles define the extent of a company's or organisation's responsibility with regard to human rights and provide a process framework for dealing with human rights risks.
Human rights responsibility of sporting event organisers
Based on the UN Guiding Principles, sporting events are responsible for
- Human rights violations that they themselves cause (e.g. paying below minimum wage for their own employees, tolerating discrimination, not eliminating the risk of accidents on the sporting event site, competition times that ignore extreme weather conditions such as heat or thunderstorms)
- Human rights violations to which they are directly linked (e.g. contract with a cleaning company that does not pay minimum wage, security company discriminates against spectators based on appearance or the contractual partner does not comply with accident prevention regulations)
For both constellations, the UN Guiding Principles require companies to identify the risks in advance and take preventive measures. These would be as follows for the above examples:
- Ensure payment of minimum wage to own staff, prevent discrimination and eliminate accident hazards on site
- Obligate contractual partners to pay minimum wage, avoid discrimination and comply with accident prevention regulations
If a human rights violation nevertheless occurs, the organiser must take remedial action, i.e. stop the violation – if it continues – and, if necessary, provide compensation (remaining wage payment, damages, compensation for pain and suffering) or ensure that the contractual partner fulfils its corresponding obligations.
In addition, sporting events can also bring about improvements outside their own area of responsibility by setting a positive example that is emulated by others (‘leverage effect’).
Procedure in a nutshell
In order for sporting event organisers to respect human rights and fulfil their own responsibilities, there is a set procedure that can be simplified into the following steps:
- Formulation and publication of a commitment to respect human rights
- Identification of actual and potential risks and development of reporting mechanisms
- Development and implementation of preventive measures based on the risk analysis
- Ensuring remedy for human rights violations (identify, stop and remedy violations)
- Reporting and monitoring
Click here for the detailed Human Rights control area
How can the human rights approach be combined with the sustainability approach?
The human rights approach is a systematic, risk-based approach with clear processes that also makes a significant contribution to sustainability with the aim of minimising human rights risks. Therefore, a further human rights process is fundamentally required in addition to the sustainability process. It is recommended that this human rights process be integrated into the overall process of sustainability management at sporting events from the outset and that the measures developed in both processes be harmonised. The combination of measures from the sustainability approach and human rights approach thus results in the overall measures. The two approaches can overlap in some areas, so that individual measures can be derived from both processes. A measure from the Diversity and Participation action area can be cited as an example: The measure ‘Contact point for discrimination incidents’ can be a result of both processes. Please refer to the NSGV tool ‘Planning Tool’ for a detailed description of a typical ideal overall process.