Sports organizations such as the International Olympic Committee and FIFA have faced scrutiny for awarding events to countries that have a history of human rights violations. In response, those governing bodies have vowed to make changes to their selection processes.
However, the question remains: Will those reforms actually make a difference?
Leading up to the 2008 Beijing Games, the Chinese government promised to improve human rights but instead locked up activists and journalists. The 2014 Sochi Winter Games were tarnished by Russia’s anti-gay law. Global outcry over poor living conditions of construction workers has stained the reputation of Qatar, host of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
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Activists challenged Russia over its anti-gay law.
Photo by: Getty Images |
While the IOC has acknowledged the problems and vowed to implement reforms, FIFA seems hesitant to make changes ahead of its presidential elections in May, according to Human Rights Watch, a New York-based group that advocates for human rights around the world. The group says now is the time for these governing bodies to make changes.
Human Rights Watch points to the IOC’s Agenda 2020 reforms, which were championed by IOC President Thomas Bach and passed last year. The reforms have raised the bar for candidate cities in terms of basic human rights.
Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch, said the new approach carries the message, “We are going to address these problems. And governments who want to host [Olympic Games] will need to take human rights into consideration.”
The IOC declined to comment for this story, while FIFA provided limited response to questions.
The IOC’s approach will be tested in July, when it awards the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games to either Beijing or Almaty, Kazakhstan, both of which have been called out by human rights activists.
“I think it’s no accident that those reforms were passed at a time when there are only two repressive governments [in contention],” Worden said.
Looking at Olympic history, change occurred only after major public embarrassments. Ben Johnson’s doping scandal at the 1988 Seoul Games led to the creation of the World Anti-Doping Agency a decade later, and the corruption scandal around the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games led to the introduction of term and age limits for IOC members.
Last year’s Sochi Winter Games, along with the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, were the low points from a human rights perspective, Worden said. Hosting major sporting events gives countries a global stage to showcase their capabilities and powers, which gives organization committees a certain amount of leverage, Worden said. “Our position is that they should use that leverage.”
Human Rights Watch believes that the Olympic Games or World Cup can have a positive effect on laws and practices in countries that have poor human rights records. The IOC and FIFA also have the ultimate sanction should countries violate the terms — they can pull the event.
For David Downs, who led U.S. Soccer’s unsuccessful bids for the World Cup in 2018 and 2022, it all starts with
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Children perform for the IOC Evaluation Commission last month in Beijing as China seeks the 2022 Winter Games.
Photo by: Beijing 2022 |
the bidding process itself.
“The decision should be made by experts and it should be a consensus opinion,” Downs said. “Just the way a major American corporation would decide to buy another company or do something equally consequential.”
Downs described the fact that 22 members of the FIFA Executive Committee decided to hold the 2022 World Cup in Qatar as “a little goofy.” He called for more transparency in voting. “If the gentleman on the FIFA Executive Committee who voted for Qatar had to face his countrymen, maybe he would have thought twice about that vote,” Downs said.
In response to calls for more transparency, FIFA decided to expand the vote on World Cup hosts from executive committee members to all 209 national associations. This, however, comes with a slew of new issues.
“If you can’t police the ethics of 24 executive committee members, can you really expect to police the ethics of 209 voting members? You are increasing the challenge tenfold,” Downs said.
He pointed out that areas where corruption is thought to be more widespread will receive more voting power. “The Caribbean block may have had one representative out of 24; it now has 31 out of 209.”
HJ Mai is assistant managing editor of SportsBusiness Daily Global.
