A coalition of athletes, their global trade union and human rights advocates on Friday urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to postpone an athlete charter due to be adopted next week.
The Athletes’ Rights and Responsibilities Declaration is set for approval at a meeting in Argentina to help safeguard athletes from issues such as sexual and physical abuse, doping and discrimination.
However, the World Players’ Association urged the IOC to delay the project, claiming it failed to properly consult athletes or experts, and would “curtail fundamental athlete rights rather than protect them.”
“The IOC’s proposed declaration does not come close to respecting the internationally recognized human rights of athletes,” union executive director Brendan Schwab said in a statement, adding that it “relegates athlete rights beneath the rules of sport governing bodies and fails to give the victims of human rights abuse access to an effective remedy.”
The union, representing 85,000 athletes in more than 60 nations, was joined by athlete groups in the US, Britain, Canada and Germany in asking the IOC to shelve the proposal.
“We are not convinced that the athlete voice has been adequately sought out ... let alone fully integrated,” the multi-nation athlete group said in a letter to IOC president Thomas Bach. “This is not a process that can be rushed to adoption in less than a year.”
The Sports and Rights Alliance activist group, which includes Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Transparency International, also said that the IOC promoted the project without heading expert advice.
The Olympic project was steered by its in-house athlete commission, which includes IOC members elected by their fellow competitors in ballots at Summer and Winter Games.
“This is one of those projects and programs that are coming out of maybe a more dark side in sport,” IOC Athletes’ Commission chairwoman Kirsty Coventry told an Olympic conference in Buenos Aires. “We all want sport to create change and to create opportunities for athletes, and this is what we have come up with.”
Still, the alliance said in its letter to the IOC that the charter fell short of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and was “likely to mischaracterize or ignore certain rights.”
The players’ union also compared the IOC unfavorably with FIFA, which has made “binding policy commitments to human rights” and has an independent advisory board.
Coventry spoke at the two-day Olympism In Action forum, where she was joined on stage by British former cyclist David Millar. He served a two-year ban for doping before joining the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) athlete panel.
Millar questioned the “hundreds of millions” the IOC spends on its Olympic Channel broadcasting project, compared with a US$16 million annual contribution to WADA’s operating budget.
“It’s up to the IOC to lead by example and give the athletes hope that they are doing their best to help the athletes,” Millar told the audience of international sports leaders. “And I’m not sure if that’s the case at the moment.”
American rugby sevens star Ilona Maher is to join 15-a-side club Bristol next month in a bid to play in next year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup, the English club announced on Monday. Maher, 28, helped the US to a bronze medal at this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris and is the seven-a-side sport’s most popular player on social media. “This is a huge coup to be able to bring Ilona Maher to Bristol Bears on a short-term deal,” Bristol head coach Dave Ward said. “She is one of the biggest names in women’s sport, let alone rugby, and we believe she will
Major League Baseball (MLB) star Shohei Ohtani wants his former interpreter to hand over hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of baseball cards he says were fraudulently bought using his money. The Los Angeles Dodgers star is also requesting Ippei Mizuhara, who previously pleaded guilty to bank and tax fraud for stealing nearly US$17 million from the unsuspecting athlete, return signed collectible baseball cards depicting Ohtani that were in Mizuhara’s “unauthorized and wrongful possession,” court documents filed on Tuesday said. The legal filing alleges Mizuhara accessed Ohtani’s bank account beginning in about November 2021, changing his security protocols so that he
US skier Mikaela Shiffrin said she sustained an abrasion on her left hip and that something “stabbed” her when she crashed during her second run of an Audi FIS Ski World Cup giant slalom race on Saturday, doing a flip and sliding into the protective fencing. Shiffrin stayed down on the edge of the course for quite some time as the ski patrol attended to her. She was taken off the hill on a sled and waved to the cheering crowd before going to a clinic for evaluation. “Not really too much cause for concern at this point, I just
CLASH OF MANAGERS: Brighton’s Fabian Hurzeler and Russell Martin of Southampton accused each other of disrespect, while both were booked Southampton on Friday were denied a priceless victory by a controversial decision as they drew with hosts Brighton & Hove Albion 1-1 in the Premier League. Kaoru Mitoma spectacularly headed Brighton into a first-half lead and Flynn Downes hammered home an equalizer an hour in. Minutes later teammate Cameron Archer converted a cross from Saints substitute Ryan Fraser. A video assistant referee check of more than four minutes eventually decided that Archer was onside, but then penalized Adam Armstrong, who was offside, but did not touch the ball, for interfering with goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen. “I find it hard to accept,” Southampton manager Russell Martin
RSS