Description
After more than seven decades of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), there are still frontiers to be conquered despite all the achievements. In the recent past, sportswashing has emerged as a potent tool for the states in general and the authoritarian ones in particular to mask the violations of human rights in their respective countries. The soft power accumulated by virtue of the successful hosting of events more often than not helps shift the discourse in their favour, a case in point being the hosting of the 2008 Olympics by Beijing. Apart from hosting mega events, ownership of football clubs all over the globe by sovereign wealth funds has also aided these efforts. The recent debate over Qatar hosting the FIFA World Cup 2022 and its abysmal human rights record in addition to questions over the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community have only intensified the concern over human rights when it comes to sportswashing. Multilateral organisations, thus, have an important role to play, when it comes to sportswashing. It cannot be business as usual by declaring the separation of sports from politics as the hosting of mega event is inherently political. They have immense potential by virtue of their influence and power to hold the regimes accountable on human rights even when sportswashing is pursued vigorously. Thus, the paper aims to look at the role which the multilateral organisations have so far played and can play to protect human rights in the present age of sportswashing. Drawbacks in the approaches pursued so far will also be looked while offering suggestions for the same.
