Forum on Sports and Human Rights (1 June 2021)

Racism and hate speech in sport

 

Johan Friestedt, Executive Secretary of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI)

Through its monitoring work, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) has long been aware that racism, including racist hate speech, and racial discrimination, which it examines and combats from the perspective of the protection of human rights, exist in the field of sport as in other fields of life and that these phenomena can prevent the right for all to access sport in a safe environment.

ECRI considers sport free of racism and intolerance part and parcel of sports values such as fair play; mutual respect; solidarity; integrity and respect for human rights.

ECRI also recognises that sport can play a very important role in fostering inclusive societies by promoting equal access to sport of different groups in society.

ECRI’s findings and recommendations in the field of sport

Based on the findings of its country monitoring work and concerned by the persistence and seriousness of manifestations of racism, xenophobia and antisemitism in sports, in 2008 already ECRI issued General Policy Recommendation (GPR) No. 12 on combating racism and racial discrimination in the field of sport, which contains a very comprehensive set of guidelines to combat these phenomena, covering all actors involved in the field of sport. These standards remain highly relevant today. The recommendations contained in ECRI’s GPR No. 15 on Combating Hate Speech are also relevant.

ECRI has reported continuously and extensively on racism in sport in its country monitoring reports. ECRI’s findings show examples of hate speech and violence in the context of in particular football matches, both in and outside stadia and also online, targeting Black people, Roma, people from other ethnic and or religious minority backgrounds and LGBTI persons.

ECRI has noted widespread abusive speech in football, expressed in racist insults, aggressively nationalistic, antisemitic and homophobic changing and offensive gestures, targeting in particular Black players of opposing teams (for instance, back in 2018, French players were subjected to monkey chants by Russian fans during a pre-World cup friendly between the two countries).[1] Racist incidents related to sport also take place outside the stadium, such as a person of African descent who was assaulted and beaten on the tram by three football hooligans.[2]

There is also a growing challenge of countering hate speech on social media. By way of illustration, ECRI noted in its last report on Ireland that a professional footballer on the national team was subjected to a barrage of racist abuse and threats on Twitter after Ireland’s World Cup playoff defeat to Denmark.[3]

ECRI’s findings also indicate that racism and racial discrimination in sport goes beyond the individual or collective behaviour of fans or isolated cases or racist gestures and remarks made by athletes, coaches or club managers. Racist (and homophobic) acts are also perpetrated by athletes, coaches, other sports staff and ordinary fans.[4]

ECRI therefore continues to draw the attention of Council of Europe member states to the recommendations contained in its General Policy Recommendation No. 12 in its monitoring reports and has specifically recommended that:

·        immediate action be taken to investigate, prosecute and punish the racist (and homophobic) behaviour of sports fans;[5]

·        measures be taken to ban racist (and homophobic) sports fan clubs;[6]

·        police and prosecution services reach out more intensively to people belonging to minorities and encourage reporting of incidents.[7]

ECRI has also insisted on the importance of holding sports clubs and federations responsible for any such acts committed during sporting events.[8]

It also invited the police to adopt joint strategies with the security personnel of the organisers of sporting events for dealing with racist (and homophobic) incidents.[9]

In the views of ECRI, the media should also be encouraged to report on racist episodes taking place during sports event and to give publicity to sanctions incurred by racist (or homophobic) offenders.[10]

ECRI has considered that more efforts should be made to counter online hate speech effectively. In this context, social media and other internet service providers should ensure that their services are not used for activities inciting to hatred.[11]

In addition to combating racism and hate speech in sport, ECRI has also emphasised the importance of combating discrimination in the field of sport. Equal opportunities in access to sport for all should be ensured and encouraged[12], including through integration programmes that promote access to sport for children from minority backgrounds.[13]

To this end, ECRI recommended that member states build and lead coalitions against racism in sport, inviting  participation from local authorities, sports federations and clubs, athletes, coaches, referees, supporters’ groups, minority representation groups, NGOs and the media, which would also include inviting local authorities to organise sport-related outreach activities bringing together people from different backgrounds and inviting sports federations and sports clubs to take measures to attract supporters of different minority backgrounds to sport events.[14]

Positive initiatives and good practices in Council of Europe member states when preventing and combating racism and racial discrimination in sport

ECRI has also highlighted good practices across Europe. In recent years there has been a growing awareness in some member states of the need to combat racism and intolerance in sport, illustrated by co-operation between and action taken by relevant actors such as the authorities, sports associations, the media and equality bodies. Various campaigns to combat racism in sport have been launched at regional, national and local levels and sports federations and clubs have included combating racism and racial discrimination in self-regulatory schemes such as their codes of conduct, with the provision of sanctions.[15]

For example, ECRI commended the Romanian Football Federation for having adopted an explicit provision on diversity and non-discrimination in its internal regulation. It also noted with satisfaction the initiatives of several state authorities including the Gendarmerie and the Department for Interethnic Relations, in, for example, the prevention campaign “Invitation to Fair Play” and the “Diversity Cup”, which were launched with the Romanian Football Federation as a way of using sports to promote diversity.[16]

ECRI noted that the potential of sport to help build an inclusive society was recognised in the action plans and strategies of some member states. For example, an action plan “Meaningful in Finland”, which was launched by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture to prevent hate speech and racism and to foster social inclusion, contained measures in the field of sport, among others. ECRI considers such initiatives as a good practice to combat hate speech, offering great potential to increase awareness about discrimination at local level and help build an inclusive society.[17]

Strengthening cooperation between ECRI and EPAS

EPAS might be of great support to ECRI in its country monitoring work by providing it with national contacts in the field of sport, including with experience and expertise in combating racism, hate speech and racial discrimination in the field of sport.

At the same time, ECRI could pay a closer look at action against racism and hate speech/racial discrimination in the field of sport in the context of its country monitoring in the years to come by approaching for information and organising meetings with sports associations/federations as well as national and local authorities responsible for sport.