Honorary Chairman of the Board of Directors of the International Athlete Rights Association Professor James Nafziger (USA) Sent a Welcoming Speech to the Participants of the Round Table in Novosibirsk on the Protection of the Rights of Russian and Belarus

Honorary Chairman of the Board of Directors of the International Athlete Rights Association Professor James Nafziger (USA) Sent a Welcoming Speech to the Participants of the Round Table in Novosibirsk on the Protection of the Rights of Russian and Belarusian Athletes.

Dear Colleagues in Sports Management and Law:

It is a great privilege for me to introduce this International Round Table of the International Athlete Rights Association. I am most grateful to my good friend Anatoly Peskov for launching the IARA, for organizing this event and for inviting me to make these remarks. 

We Round Table participants come from different backgrounds with diverse and sometimes conflicting world views. We all, however, share a deep commitment to promote the often-threatened interests of athletes and the productive practice of sport "without discrimination" as a human right under Principle #4 of the Olympic Charter. It is, indeed, an inalienable right. We also share an aspiration, even in today's troubled world, that sport can be an indispensable agent of peace and human solidarity. Principle #2 of the Charter provides that "the goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity." Each of us in this organization must work hard to help make that aspiration a reality.

Politics is, of course, inseparable from sport and can even contribute positively to the enjoyment of sports and the development of a sports culture. But it can do so only insofar as it promotes the participation of all meritorious athletes and constructively engages the public as a whole to identify with and support such development. The cardinal rule is that politics should never interfere with the eligibility of meritorious athletes to participate not only in the Olympics and Paralympics but in all sanctioned international competition.  I have always believed that. For example, early in my professional career I published a short article in a law review criticizing the boycott by some National Olympic Committees of the 1980 Games in Moscow. Today my abiding enthusiasm for protecting individual athletes from exclusionary politics is well reflected in both the title and the agenda of the IARA, that is, to promote athlete rights.

More broadly and importantly, the Olympic Charter not only establishes a fundamental human right to practice sport, but under Principle 5 provides that sports organizations within the Olympic Movement--which is to say, within the single comprehensive framework of international sports law and management--"shall apply political neutrality." Principle 6 then amplifies Principle 4's requirement of practicing sport "without discrimination" to include, specifically discrimination on the basis of "political or other opinion." Finally, one of the first and most basic Rules in the Charter is #6, which confirms that "the Olympic Games are competitions between athletes in individual or team events and not between countries." That is an absolutely fundamental rule however apparent nationality and national symbols may be in international competition. To be sure, it is often difficult to protect athletes from excessive country-based nationalism, but to do so is essential, however constructive the public's unavoidable patriotism may be. These fundamental provisions of international sports law find support in soft law and authoritative statements such as recent concerns expressed by two special rapporteurs appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council condemning discrimination based on national identity so as to bar athletes from Olympic, Paralympic and other sanctioned international competition. 

Of course, within the margins of this legal framework, geopolitics may impose incidental aspects of an athlete's participation in competition, so long as he or she is allowed to participate--for example, by minimizing his or her national identity such as by prohibiting certain colors in wearing apparel and so on, just as rules of participation normally impose constraints on the commercialization of athletes. Such incidental aspects are entirely acceptable so long as all meritorious athletes eligible for competition under non-political rules--German, Nigerian, Chinese or Russian, it doesn't matter-- are assured of participation. That is, as I said, a cardinal rule of sports law and a premise of what I am certain will be an enlightening discussion within the IARA today. Best wishes and thank you.

                                                                 Most sincerely, 

                                                                 James A.R. Nafziger

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