Prepared in response to the call for inputs issued by the Special Rapporteur on cultural rights to inform her report on the right to participate in sports, this submission advocates for an intersectional approach that examines the colonial, racist, patriarchal and capitalist underpinnings and root causes for violations of the right to participate in sports. This requires engaging with the enabling environment, material conditions and socio-economic rights necessary for the enjoyment of the rights to sports participation, leisure and rest, including with regard to reproductive labor. The submission also looks at the colonial past and present of competitive sports, and the targeting of racialized athletes based on essentialist and racist conceptions of womanhood. Finally, it calls for analyzing the capitalist dimensions of human rights violations in the context of large sporting events and for human rights accountability for corporations and sporting bodies.
The Special Rapporteur’s report was presented to the UN General Assembly in October 2024 and can be accessed here. SRI endorsed a joint statement welcoming the report.