Mega-Sporting Events and Human Rights at the OECD Responsible Business Forum

The OECD's Global Forum on Responsible Business Conduct took place on 18-19 June 2015.  IHRB's Executive Director spoke on the subject of responsibility in international sporting events and discussed IHRB's emerging work on mega-sporting events.  He started by saying: 

"On 23rd June 1894, the International Olympic Committee was born here in Paris at a Congress organised by Baron Pierre de Coubertin. In one of his most eloquent remarks, he described the significance of sports in life, by emphasising the importance of the means, and not the ends.

"As he said: 'The important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win, but to take part; the important thing in life is not triumph, but the struggle; the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well. To spread these principles is to build up a strong and more valiant and, above all, more scrupulous and more generous humanity.' The Olympic Charter affirmed this view, placing sport at 'the service of the harmonious development of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.' "