A Rights-Holder View on Human Rights Provisions in Olympic Bidding and Hosting Regulations. (7th December 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Heerdt, Daniela
• Is Part Of: AJIL unbound. Volume 114(2020)
• Page Start: 356
• Page End: 361
• Publication Date: 2020-12-07
• Subjects: International law -- Periodicals; 341.05
• DOI: 10.1017/aju.2020.70
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2398-7723

Abstract

Abstract : The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics will be the first Olympic Games for which human rights provisions were added to the Host City Contract (HCC). The Milano/Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will be the first edition of the Games that were awarded with human rights requirements forming part of the candidature process. The inclusion of human rights provisions into hosting and bidding regulations can be seen as a reaction of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to the increasing pressure from civil society to address adverse human rights impacts of these events. This essay provides an analysis of the benefits and shortcomings of this development and reveals that from a rights-holder perspective, the benefits are meaningless. More specifically, it argues that potential benefits are cancelled out by the shortcomings and most importantly that there is a mismatch between intended and actual beneficiaries of these provisions.