Sport inside
UEFA and DFB have the for 2024 “most sustainable European Football Championship of all time” announced. After the World Cup in Qatar, they want to score points with social justice and set new standards. But compared to other sporting events, they lag behind.
Only seven and a half months until the opening. The organizers of the 2024 European Football Championship are currently sprinting on behalf of human rights. The only problem is: you are only on the first stage of a marathon.
In November, the goals and measures with which the organizers want to counter exploitation, discrimination, sexual violence and other dangers that people can encounter at or in the vicinity of the European Championships should finally be determined. Sylvia Schenk coordinates a group of human rights organizations that want to help UEFA and the DFB and keep an eye on them. She says: “We’re actually far too late with everything. Those in charge have now understood that.”
This means stress for the two employees who take care of the entire sustainability area full-time at EURO 2024 GmbH, a subsidiary of the DFB and UEFA. In its application to host the European Championships, the DFB promised three to four full-time employees for this area.
In addition to the environmental sustainability of the tournament, the focus is also on social justice. After the World Cup in Qatar, the DFB wants to score points with its human rights promises in 2024 and even “set new standards”. But so far the EM has lagged behind in international comparison.
Human rights policy: EURO 2024 GmbH is late
The so-called human rightsPolicy, in which UEFA, DFB and the host cities of the European Championship want to record their goals and measures, is one example. An ambitious policy is the benchmark. Most recently, Australia and New Zealand set this very high when hosting the Women’s World Cup.
When the human rights policy for the 2024 European Championship finally comes in November, it will be late compared to the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. “Two and a half years in advance, they defined their policy paper and measures on the biggest human rights risks in order to then be able to take preventive action. So we are basically two years behind.”says Sylvia Schenk, but also explains: “For German conditions, where we have very little experience with such human rights processes, I am glad that we are at this point now. But internationally we are lagging behind.”
Schenk believes that many Germans lack an understanding of human rights and awareness of the problem. Because it’s not always about torture or deaths on stadium construction sites, but also about exploitation, discrimination, sexual violence and other dangers that people can encounter during the European Championships or their preparation.
This is also evident among the decision-makers: “Those in charge always think that I’ll decide today that I’ll stick to human rights and tomorrow everything will be fine. That doesn’t work in Qatar or in Germany. And that might be a good thing if we learn it together now. There’s a need “There are detailed measures that take time to implement.”
Next step has little time: one Complaints office introduce
If the promises made by the European Championship organizers are included in the human rights policy, implementation and control work will ideally begin. The most important institution for this is a complaints office – if it is created at an early stage. In addition to human rights activists, political scientists also emphasize this.
The complaints office should be a contact point for everyone who feels that their rights have been violated as part of the EM or the EM preparations. Independent contacts should mediate between complainants and the EM organizers so that improvements can be achieved together.
The human rights policy will be the overarching, but not the only, set of rules that complainants can refer to the complaints office and the EM organizers. The employees of EURO 2024 GmbH, the workers in the supply chains, the athletes, young and adult fans, fans with disabilities, journalists – each of these groups has special rights that the organizers promise to protect.
But – just like the human rights policy and the complaints office – there are currently no concrete promises in the area of child and youth protection and working conditions for journalists. The preparations for the European Championship are already in full swing, both in terms of sport and organization.
“In the area of the press and freedom of expression, it is important that a complaints mechanism is set up as early as possiblesays Sophie von Waitz from the Reporters Without Borders association: “Journalists are already researching the European Championship. In doing so, they can experience human rights violations themselves or become aware of some that they want to report and where they want to make sure that they are dealt with.”
The concept for Complaints office is still at the beginning
In response to Sportschau’s request, EURO 2024 GmbH stated that the complaints office should be set up by the end of the year. Too late, say von Waitz and other human rights advocates. Von Waitz believes that the organizers are primarily looking at human rights violations that could take place on site during the tournament.
In its application, the DFB promised that the tournament preparation would also be carried out in accordance with human rights. After all, the DFB was one of the first national football associations in the world to include the protection of human rights in its statutes.
“As part of the preparation for the tournament, for example, people in the supply chain who are already producing merchandising products in China, Bangladesh or elsewhere need to know about the complaints mechanism.”says Sylvia Schenk. It must be easily accessible, including in terms of language and technology. And if the complaints office is in force, it must of course first be made public.
How does it work? Complaints office?
Now time is of the essence: two months remain until the start of the European Championship year and for the details to be worked out. To put it into perspective: The organizers of the 2012 Olympic Games in London, whose complaints office is considered a model in sport, took more than two years to work with human rights organizations to develop a four-stage procedure that was intended to ensure the independent assessment of human rights complaints.
Sophie von Waitz says that the EM organizers failed to coordinate with human rights organizations at an early stage regarding the complaints mechanism. “We don’t know how a report will be processed. We also don’t know what remedial mechanisms might look like in the end. We don’t know how civil society actors will be involved and at what point UEFA will be involved.”she complains.
Opposite the WDR magazine Sport inside EURO 2024 GmbH announced its plans: “Using telephone or digital input, immediate redress can be provided to complainants or the complaint can be passed on to the relevant authority.” Given the effort that went into the 2012 Olympics to enable an independent assessment of the complaints, that sounds a bit simple.
Pointed out, EURO 2024 GmbH adds: “It is planned that independent and external experts will follow up on the reported cases and in this way ensure that an agreement is reached.” If necessary, human rights organizations could also be involved, according to a spokesman for EURO 2024 GmbH. But nothing is certain yet.
Falling short of your own expectations
The DFB, UEFA and host cities have made great efforts to make social justice a major issue during the European Championship. Human rights representatives in Germany expressly welcome this. But those involved realized too late how big the challenges were. That’s why the EM organizers have so far fallen short of their own demands.