On Tuesday, the DFB and UEFA, together with the federal government, presented the human rights declaration for the European Football Championship next summer.
The Declaration of Human Rights applies the United Nations’ international standards on labor and human rights to the European Championships. In doing so, the organizers want to counteract exploitation, discrimination, sexual violence and other dangers that fans, employees, volunteers, journalists, athletes or even bystanders can encounter as a result of the European Championship.
In a long table in the appendix to the declaration, 34 specific scenarios are discussed in a so-called risk analysis. They look at the topics of safety and health, working conditions, discrimination, abuse, representation of a diverse society, accessibility, inclusion and freedom of expression and press.
Lars Fuchs, sports show, November 14th, 2023 12:38 p.m
DFB announced “new standards”, human rights representatives put the brakes on
In addition to the specific threats to labor and human rights, the table also lists the planned countermeasures and preventive measures and states the responsibilities.
How difficult it is to name the responsibilities at the European Championships in Germany is shown by the list of those who signed the human rights declaration in the Federal Ministry of the Interior on Tuesday (November 14th, 2023): a representative of UEFA, a representative of the DFB, Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser , Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil, a representative of the participating federal states, a representative of the ten host cities and EURO 2024 GmbH, which coordinates the organization of the event.
The DFB and UEFA had already focused on the issue of sustainability when applying for the European Championship. In addition to labor and human rights efforts, this also includes environmental protection and anti-corruption work. After the World Cup in Qatar, the European Championships in the summer will “set new standards” in this area – as the organizers have announced.
Tournament organizers are late with the human rights declaration
However, the human rights organizations that helped the DFB and UEFA draft the human rights declaration and that were also represented at the signing ceremony in Berlin don’t like to hear that.
The DFB was one of the first national football associations in the world to include the protection of human rights in its statutes in 2019. But he is far from the first tournament host to make a human rights statement. The current model among international sporting events is the 2023 Women’s Football World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Compared to this tournament, the DFB and UEFA are late, says Sylvia Schenk. She represents a group of human rights organizations that advise the organizers. In Australia and New Zealand, the human rights declaration together with the risk analysis was already available a year and a half before the tournament.
Ultimately, it is also about preventing human rights violations during the preparation of the tournament. And it has been running for the European Football Championship in Germany for more than two years.
Implementation and control of promises are the next steps
Now that the promises of the European Championship organizers are in the human rights declaration, the implementation and control must work. The most important institution for this is a complaints office – this is emphasized by human rights activists and political scientists. But it is just being created.
It should start work in January, according to EURO 2024 GmbH. “Once the complaints office is in effect, it will of course first have to be made public,” points out Sylvia Schenk. “For example, people in the supply chain who are already producing merchandising products for the EM in China, Bangladesh or elsewhere need to know about the complaint mechanism.”
Schenk believes that Germany is catching up, but will not set new international standards with regard to labor and human rights. The federal government and the tournament organizers, however, emphasize that the German supply chain law is also part of the labor rights promise of the 2024 European Championship. And this could definitely be “a valuable legacy” outside of Germany, said Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil.