Islj 2009 3-4 - TMC Asser Instituut

Panther Movement, at that time the most profiling militant organization
against racism in the USA 49 .
• During the 1972 Games in Munich there was the brutal hostage
taking and murdering of Israeli athletes by Palestinian extremists,
in this way involving the entire world directly in the Middle East
violence going on for ages already 50 .
• In 1976 African nations boycotted the Montreal Games because
New Zealand, whose Rugby team had made a tour through South
Africa those days, was allowed to compete. Non discrimination is
part of the Olympic Charter and of course violation must be followed
by severe measures. I think the IOC should have prevented
New Zealand from participating in the Games of 1976 51 .
• The United Nations resolution of 1978, suspending the UN status
of South Africa for its humiliating Apartheid regime against blacks,
calling for the world to apply this decision in any possible way. A
memorable thing is the fact that the IOC had taken banning steps
against South Africa as early as 1971. And although consistently on
the agendas, political power play in the UN delayed a decision until
the 1978. In the early 80s the IOC position was enforced by Black
Listing all foreign athletes competing in South Africa since the
acceptance of the said Un resolution and prohibiting these Black
Listed athletes to compete in events held in UN member states 52 .
• In 1980 America led another boycott, now against the Moscow
Games in protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. It was
supported by 61 other nations 53 .
• Political topics during the Games were not limited to certain races
or regions. In this connection I mention the enormously complicated
discussion between the IOC - China and Taiwan. Few know
that it took the IOC and the international lobby some years to find
a workable solution between these two countries, which was formulated
in 1979 in the Nagoya Resolution 54 . The IOC was able to
bridge the long existing fundamental trouble between these two
countries, but could not prevent China from continue considering
Taiwan just a rebellious province until today.
• One of the recent interesting effects recorded, is the right of participation
of Muslim women in sport. The I.O.C. adopted UN conceptions
on this and decided to ban Brunei for its prohibition of
women to participate in sports 55 . This pressure worked well and
resulted in drastically change of the Brunei policy on the matter.
In addition to the generally positive influence of these Games linked
events, let’s not forget the several IOC concerted awareness rising
activities against every form of discrimination, the extra attention for
disabled people and the special attention for environmental protection.
It all became part of the Olympic mission 56 in which the athlete
primarily serves and presents the country in the best and most dignified
manner he or she is able to.
This athlete from Lesotho was in Beijing and will take home priceless
impressions and stories. His country and people are truly part of
the world community. Will we?
4. IOC and the legal rules of the games
The great importance of the Games to nations can never be denied.
In the previous Section I focused on this using the influential developments
to underline that Olympic involvement is a must for every
country, including the involvement of their people and their athletes,
while explaining Olympism as the blended interest of the athlete
49 www.infoplease.com/spot/
summer-olympics-mexico-city.html.
50 www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/
Terrorism/munich.html.
51 www.cbc.ca/olympics/history/.../folympics-history-1976.html.
52 www.iisg.nl/collections/antiapartheid/history/jaren80-1.php.
53 www.cbc.ca/sports/indepth/feature-boycotts-countries.html.
54 www.teco.org.au/whatnew/
six_call_for_democracy_forum.htm - 39k.
55 www.javno.com/en-sports/
brunei-excluded-from-olympicgames_170392
- 99k.
56 www.olympic.org/uk/organisation/
missions/environment_uk.asp - 18k.
57 C.F. Amerasinghe. Principles of the institutional
law of international organizations
(1998), p 15.
58 multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/
en_report_122.pdf.
59 www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home/topics/
intla/humri.html.
60en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Montevideo_Convention Signatories.
(who we as people endorse and sponsor), and the country (the territory
and its people). I have also exposed the inside jobs against our
national interest.
Now it is time to take a closer look at the IOC organization in relation
with the Thesis as well as on the legal possibilities with regards to
disputes with the IOC, including lawsuits. Since the IOC became an
international institute, it must respect the regulations applicable to
organizations of this kind. One certainly is that it must allow judgment
of its actions. 57
4.1. The formal status and organization of the IOC
The IOC is a private organization. This can be seen in Rule 15 of the
Olympic Charter. The organization was founded in 1894 by Baron
Pierre de Coubertin, a French educator and sportsman. The Charter
rules outlining its legal status read: Rule 15.1: “The IOC is an international
non-governmental not-for-profit organization, of unlimited
duration, in the form of an association with the status of a legal person,
recognized by the Swiss Federal Council in accordance with an
agreement entered into on 1 November 2000”, Rule 15.2 “Its seat is in
Lausanne (Switzerland), the Olympic capital”. 58 Its mission is to promote
Olympism throughout the world and to lead the Olympic
Movement. Its role is quite extensive, but, briefly stated, supportive
by all means to sports on all the five continents, symbolized by the five
interlaced rings on the Olympic emblem.
The Olympic Movement is the organized, concerted, universal and
permanent action formed by all parties involved in Olympic sports
and its spirit.
The IOC is governed by a Council of 115 internationally elected
members, including the IOC Executive Board consisting of 15 people,
responsible for the general management of the organization. All
members are confirmed by oath. Related to the IOC, there are a number
of specialized commissions. These are formally appointed advisory
groups on specific topics assisting the Session (the council), the
Executive Board and/or the President. The best known are the ones
dealing with: ethics - evaluation of sites - Games coordination -
Olympic Solidarity - Medical Aspects.
It is globally known that Switzerland, due to its position in the
financial world, strives to extreme neutrality and gives high respect to
fundamental law principles as well as the Law of Nations, United
Nations Human Rights Treaties and Resolutions regarding the right
of self-determination of peoples. 59 The country is not part of the
European Union, but adheres very much to the European laws, claims
to oppose discrimination and to attach great value to the principle of
equality. 60
For the sake of completeness I add to the above that IOC has listed
202 recognized NOCs of which American Samoa - Aruba -
Bermuda - British Virgin Island - Cayman Islands - Cook Island -
Guam - Hong Kong - Netherlands Antilles - Palestine - Puerto Rico
- Taiwan and US Virgin Islands (14 in total) are not independent
states (in terms of the United Nations), but countries with more or
less autonomy. Other than that, their constitutional frame and status,
de facto and de jure, is not intercomparable at all.
4.2. International disputes trial in sports today.
As time went by and sports in general increased enormously in all
senses, so did the numbers of sports related lawsuits and disputes. The
Swiss and other national courts could not keep up with the needed
expertise and in the early 80s it became prudent to create an independent
and impartial arbitration institute for sports related conflicts.
Reason why Jose Samaranch, the then President of the IOC, founded
the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in 1984, providing settlement
of disputes at a very high professional juridical level, applying
procedural rules of justice accepted worldwide, adapted to the specific
needs of the sports world by way of arbitration. CAS is completely
funded by the IOC, though the idea was to avoid all and any IOC
influence in the professional functioning of CAS.
Unfortunately, it did not work well in the early days and serious
doubt was raised on the impartiality of CAS, due to its financial
dependency of IOC.
52 2009/3-4
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