The Olympics’ evolving relationship with human rights: an ongoing affair

Abstract

Human rights have become an increasingly important topic for mega sports events since the start of the 21st century, and the issue will undoubtedly make the headlines again in relation to Beijing hosting the XXIV Winter Olympic Games in February 2022 and Qatar hosting the Men's Football World Cup in November 2022. The present review shows that the modern Olympic Games' relationship with human rights has evolved in step with society's evolving conception of human rights. This evolution is clearly illustrated by the Olympic system's attitude toward human rights at four key periods, centred round the 1936 Olympics, the Games of the 1960s and 1970s, the Games in China (2008, 2014 and 2022) and future editions of the Games (from 2024). Each moment required the Olympic Games to consider human rights that it had rarely had to attend to before. Indeed, given society's increasing concern for human rights, the Olympic system and host countries will undoubtedly have to pay ever-greater attention to the issue when attributing and staging Olympic Games.In 2022 China will host the XXIV Winter Olympic Games (in Beijing), while Qatar will stage the 22nd Men's Football World Cup. The 11th Gay Games, originally scheduled for 2021, will also take place in China (Hong Kong) in 2022. The organisations responsible for attributing these events-the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and the Federation of Gay Games-chose these countries despite frequent criticism of their human rights records and society's increasing demands that sports events respect human rights.In step with society, scholars have devoted a lot of attention to the issue of human rights and sport since the beginning of the 21st century (e.g.

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“…National Olympic Academies and Committees should encourage exercise programs for health and quality of life, promote strategies for all age groups, and develop action plans for educational, sporting, and governmental bodies. Given society's increasing concern for human rights and environmentally sustainable Olympic Games, the IOC will need to truly embrace and practice its core values to avoid increasing criticism about its complicity in prioritizing power and profit over human rights and the environment (Boykoff 2019;Chappelet 2021;Davidson and McDonald 2018;Geeraert and Gauthier 2017). The IOC and Olympics have a lot of potential to contribute to advancing health and education, improving equity, inclusion, and sustainability, and to global development and peace initiatives.…”

Retheorizing the Cultural Politics of Sport After a Decade of Activism, Populism, and Polarization

“…It is touches on all the social issues, public problems, and global concerns of the era. Race-based social justice activism associated with the Black Lives Matter movement and struggles against police violence, anti-Blackness, and white supremacy have been at the leading edge of these movements (Bryant, 2018;Cooper, 2021;Edwards, 2016;Zirin, 2021;Trimbur, 2019) and are the ones I know best and have been most focused on myself; however, activism, resistance, and protest in domains such as gender equity (Antunovic & Hardin, 2012;Cooky, 2017), human rights (Chappelet, 2021;Chanda et al, 2021), andenvironmentalism (Millington &Darnell, 2019) have also been prominent. Sport-based organizing and activism against professional sport, mega events, and global sporting organizations constitutes some of the most organized and ongoing resistance in the sportsworld (Boykoff, 2023(Boykoff, , 2014 and includes fans as well (Hodges & Brentin, 2018;Valiente, 2019).…”