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Resolution 2276 (2019)
Stop hate speech and acts of hatred in sport
1. Hatred and intolerance are rife
in Europe today and the world of sport, which reflects society at
large, is not immune to this reality. On the contrary, various forms
of hatred and intolerance, including Afrophobia, antisemitism, homo-
and transphobia, Islamophobia, racism, sexism and xenophobia, often
find fertile ground in the world of sport, leading to verbal and
physical violence. This interferes with the spirit of competition
that is a natural element of sport, by polluting and perverting
it.
2. Verbal abuse is widespread in the sports environment, in the
form of insults and chants that may amount to hate speech and incitation
to violence. Abuse may also be written, visual or allusive, with
the use of symbolic objects, extremist iconography or vandalism
of the opponents’ symbols. These phenomena occur most often in collective
ways, among supporters, but they also take place on the playing
field, involving players, trainers or referees, either as perpetrators
or victims of the abuse.
3. The Parliamentary Assembly condemns hatred and intolerance
in any form and believes that the impact of hate speech should not
be underestimated. While awareness of this issue and the need to
address it has increased in recent years, much remains to be done
to counter it effectively in the sports environment. In addition,
the danger posed by populists and other ideologues attempting to
manipulate sports supporters for electoral and political gain should
be prevented and countered.
4. The Council of Europe has taken action against hate speech
in the area of sport through various activities, in particular through
the Youth Sector’s No Hate Speech Movement campaign, in co-operation
with the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS).
5. The Assembly welcomes the memorandums of understanding signed
in 2018 between the Council of Europe, the European Union of Football
Associations (UEFA) and the Fédération internationale de football association
(FIFA) as an important basis for co-operation to promote human rights,
integrity, good governance and non-discrimination in football, which
is by far the most popular sport in Europe, and the fact that the
first of these memorandums explicitly mentions hate speech among
the manifestations of discrimination that member States are required
to prevent and combat.
6. The Assembly is aware of the powerful potential that sport
has to change mindsets. It is convinced that sport should be first
and foremost an instrument for promoting and transmitting values
such as fair play, mutual respect and tolerance, in addition to
being a beneficial activity for personal development and health
and a form of entertainment accessible to all. There should be no
place in sport for prejudice and violence, nor for manipulation
of supporters’ sentiments.
7. The Assembly recalls its Resolution 2131 (2016) “Sport for
all: a bridge to equality, integration and social inclusion”, particularly
as regards the need for mechanisms for regular and systematic monitoring
of discrimination in the field of sport.
8. The Assembly believes that education is key in preventing
hatred and intolerance, including in the sports environment, and
special attention should be paid to the role of schools in transmitting
the values of tolerance and respect for human dignity.
9. The Assembly supports the Council of Europe Convention on
an Integrated Safety, Security and Service Approach at Football
Matches and Other Sports Events (CETS No. 218) and invites all member
States which have not yet signed and ratified it to do so.
10. In the light of these considerations, the Assembly calls on
the Council of Europe member States to:
10.1. promote research and data collection on hate speech and
hate crime in the sports environment. Data should be comparable
and disaggregated by geographic location, sport, victim and perpetrator
– distinguishing between athletes (professional and amateur) and
spectators – and the grounds of discrimination;
10.2. integrate into their national plans or strategies against
hate speech and hate crime specific measures to address these issues
in the sports environment;
10.3. strengthen co-operation with sports organisations in areas
relevant to hatred and intolerance, including the monitoring and
reporting of incidents, information and awareness-raising activities targeting
athletes, staff and management of sports organisations, as well
as the general public;
10.4. ensure that reporting mechanisms are available for victims
of hate speech and discrimination in the sports environment, both
with a view to protecting victims and to regularly monitoring the phenomenon;
10.5. combat impunity by ensuring consistent implementation
of existing administrative and criminal sanctions for hate speech
in the sports environment and making use of the technologies currently available
on sports grounds to identify perpetrators;
10.6. conduct awareness-raising campaigns targeting the general
public on the dangers posed by hate speech, the reporting mechanisms
available and the importance of countering impunity by reporting incidents;
10.7. integrate sports ethics into school curricula, in the
framework of citizenship education; provide physical education teachers
and sports trainers with training on detecting and responding to discrimination
and abuse targeting athletes, whether at amateur or professional
level;
10.8. encourage media to provide pluralistic, unbiased information
on athletes, particularly those most exposed to hatred, and their
performance, and to report accurately and without bias on hate speech incidents
and hate crimes.
11. The Assembly calls on sports federations and other sports
organisations to:
11.1. integrate
equality and non-discrimination into their activities and promote
democratic values; prevent and combat hate speech and, to this end,
strengthen co-operation with supporters’ clubs, civil society organisations,
the media and educational institutions;
11.2. appoint outstanding athletes as “ambassadors for equality
and non-discrimination”;
11.3. require all players to formally commit to refraining from
hate speech and manifestations of hatred and intolerance;
11.4. provide all players and staff members with training on
how to identify, prevent and counter hate speech and intolerance;
11.5. promote educational programmes for sports supporters and
fan clubs in order to prevent hate speech in stadiums during matches.
12. The Assembly underlines that sport should not only be a matter
of competition, but also an environment in which people of all origins
and walks of life can find common ground and interact harmoniously
in diversity.