This online course is designed to help the various actors within sport organisations and athletes themselves to better understand their rights, how to respect them, and how to claim them. It was developed based on extensive research on athletes’ human rights, mapping the various relevant human rights, how they apply to athletes and what the challenges are in the sporting context. It is part of the Erasmus+ project co-funded by the European Union titled ‘Human Rights Empowered Through Athletes Rights’ (H.E.R.O.).
Athletes often lack the necessary time and resources to identify and claim their human rights. This course aims to bridge this gap by building the capacity and knowledge of athletes and sport organisations on human rights of athletes, looking at how to protect athletes’ rights in a sporting context and thereby creating a safe and respectful sporting environment. More specifically, it teaches participants what athletes’ human rights are, where they get these rights from, how they can be claimed and how sport organisations can protect and respect athletes’ human rights abuses. It is based on the premise that sport holds both opportunities and risks for athletes’ human rights, and relevant examples throughout the course will highlight how sport can live up to its responsibility to respect athletes’ human rights, prevent and mitigate risks, and address those cases where athletes’ human rights have been harmed.
By educating athletes, we hope to empower them to claim their rights, bringing us closer to a world of sport that is better and safer for all!
