A Legal Approach to the Interaction between Sports and Human Rights

Abstract

Human rights are generally rights that people deserve simply because of being human, they are rights which are inherent quality and nobody can survive without them. At the international level various documents in support of these rights have been issued and the universality of it is somewhat that even the most totalitarian systems do not oppose this idea, at least literally. In one hand, the sport as a universal phenomenon affects different aspects of our life. Million spectators for sporting events and turning sport to a lucrative business have led to a phenomenon which is solely sport- based turned to a stir-maker in the phenomenon of human life. How these two universal and global phenomena interact, is the topic of our discussion. The intersection of these two phenomena can be traced back to three main areas; Firstly, sport according to international instruments is a human right, secondly, sport area in which human rights norms and standards should be applied to in the light of these principles so that athletes’ human rights are preserved and promoted, and thirdly, because of the international attention and countless audience to sport, it can be a tool for the protection and promotion of human rights. The desk (documentary research) method was used to conduct this study.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n3p196