Revitalising a phantom regime: the adjudication of human rights complaints in sport
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ARTICLE
Revitalising a phantom regime: the adjudication of human rights complaints in sport Daniel West1
© T.M.C. Asser Instituut 2019
Abstract The protection of fundamental human rights in sport has increasingly been at the forefront of public consciousness over recent years. The response from the sport sector has been a number of measures that purport to bolster its own human rights credentials, with a number of key governing bodies taking steps to implement principles of international human rights law through soft regulation and institutional initiatives. With access to remedy representing a key pillar of human rights protections, however, the extent to which these measures can be enforced via third party adjudication is key to understanding the effectiveness of these developments. This article makes two key assertions. First, that the current system for adjudicating human rights complaints in sport lacks cohesion, effectiveness and credibility; it is consequently a ‘phantom regime’. Second, it will argue that the best means of addressing the accountability gap created by this phantom regime is through a closer alliance with principles of public international law—it will then proceed to examine the case for a specialist Court of Arbitration for Sport and Human Rights. In doing so, it will seek to emphasise the value of a functional adjudicatory system to the overall effectiveness of human rights protections in sport, and consider how best this objective might be achieved. Keywords Human rights · Access to remedy · Adjudication · Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) · Judicial remedy · International courts and tribunals · Public international law · United Nations Guiding Principles (UNGPs)
1 Introduction Recent years have witnessed a proliferation of human rights developments within the sport sector. The vast majority of these are ostensibly positive, purporting to enshrine norms of international human rights law (IHRL) within the constitutional and regulatory instruments that govern various sports and their administrative bodies. Yet evidence of human rights abuses arising within the sport context continues to yield ineffective remedy; prominent examples of violations
This article is based on a presentation that was delivered at the Annual International Sports Law Conference of the International Sports Law Journal, which took place in The Hague in October 2018—I am grateful for comments and queries received in response to that presentation that have helped to develop some of the ideas expressed within, and also to Michele Tedeschini for his invaluable feedback. * Daniel West [email protected] 1
Practising solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales; LLM, University College London, London, UK
that remain largely unaddressed include the appalling worker conditions underpinning delivery of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar,1 forced evictions ahead of major sporting events2 and ongoing issues of gender discrimination.3 Numerous 1
Human Rights Watch, Qatar: Take Urgent Action to Protect Constructi
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