Sport and human rights: assessing the performance of nation states in assuring the right to sport participation

Abstract

Participation in sport is recognised as a human right under the terms of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), as a component of ‘participation in the cultural life of the community’. It has also been declared a human right in the Council of Europe’s Sport for All Charter, the UNESCO International Charter of Physical Education, Physical Activity and Sport and the Olympic Charter. UN member states which have ratified the legal treaties associated with the UDHR undertake to assure the rights involved and to submit periodical reports to the UN on their progress in doing so. A review of EU member states’ recent progress reports reveals a general failure to recognise the status of sport as a human right or to include data on levels of sport participation. Given the absence of existing guidelines on assessment of national performance in regard to realisation of the right to sport participation, this paper presents a worked example to demonstrate a possible methodology for such a procedure, utilising, for demonstration purposes, the European Commission’s Eurobarometer survey data and taking account of variation in national GDP per capita levels.