Globalized Standards

Abstract

Before megasports could begin leaving human rights and anti-corruption legacies, international anti-corruption and human rights standards had to progress through two distinct steps. First came the international instruments that nearly every country in the world would sign. On the human rights side, this occurred in the 1970s, while the anti-corruption instruments developed during globalization, in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The second step was the application of these human rights and anti-corruption standards not only to states but to private-sector entities. For human rights, this step occurred in 2011 when the UN Human Rights Council endorsed the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. On the anti-corruption side, it occurred with the emergence of anti-corruption compliance standards captured in a variety of public- and private-sector guidance documents. These standards have in turn become integrated into IOC and FIFA policies and are essential to legacy formation. While countries of course vary significantly in their implementation of human rights and anti-corruption standards, megasports provide compelling evidence of their degree of cross-cultural assent. Though the successive megasport hosts of Qatar (2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup) and France (2024 Paris Summer Olympics) present a cultural juxtaposition bordering on the ironic, these hosts agree that their events must comply with fundamental human rights and anti-corruption standards.