In Pursuit of Clarity: A Critique of Sports Governing Bodies’ Conceptual Inconsistency in Human Rights Work

Abstract

This article argues that the endorsement by sports governing bodies (SGBs), like the International Olympic Committee (IOC), of ideals that enable people to live as free and equal individuals in a non-repressive society may be seen as window-dressing unless the theoretical foundation of this position is refined. The reason is that although this support is couched by SGBs in terms like ‘human rights’, ‘human dignity’ and ‘non-discrimination’, the incoherence of the SGBs’ definitions of these terms and how they relate to each other reduces the chances of using them legitimately. This article seeks to rationalise the sociological links between ‘human rights’, ‘human dignity’ and ‘non-discrimination’ in the context of the highly specific power relations in which SGBs are involved. In this way, it constructs an alternative approach which would enable SGBs to promote human rights through sport in a more theoretically consistent way.