A Thread.

/1 Governments, through varying levels of [misconceived] deference, politically and legally to Sports Governing Bodies, a deference to the notion of the ‘specificity’ and ‘autonomy’ of sport,......... https://twitter.com/traceyleeholmes/status/1389349844284624898

/2......the view that regulation of sport is special, and that the needs of sport should prevail over human rights & the rule of law - have over decades created fertile ground for corruption, abuse, discrimination, and ultimately widespread governance failures in [global] sport.

/3 Recent examples include m cases of abuse of athletes involving US Gymnastics+USOC, the abuse of athletes in Japan and U.K., historical abuse of child footballers in UK, human rights abuses in regard to abuse of migrant workers building World Cup infrastructure in Qatar.

/4 Accordingly, with the ongoing governance failures in [global] sport, the notion of ‘autonomy’ and ‘specificity of sport, surely, has lost any legitimacy?

/5 In a [global] sports regulatory environment, where Sports’ regulation and the promulgation of its rules is given primacy over human rights and the rule of law - the resulting harms and negative impacts on human rights surely no longer justify this harmful position?

6 This begs question, whether, a system designed to address sports integrity (Sports Integrity Australia) matters, is an appropriate reporting system for sexual assault survivors, and human rights related complaints needing access to an effective remedy?

/7 Prof John Ruggie’s 2016 report to FIFA on Human Rights deals with the question of human rights expertise and need for procedural and substantive protections in sports arbitration systems, given salient human rights risks to players.

This is equally applicable to other sports.

/8 Before design of any new complaints process, the starting point should be that sports governing bodies (Gymnastics Australia in this case) commit to respect the human rights of athletes and those involved with Sport in accordance with internationally recognised human rights.

/end

Lastly, also on the issue of a reporting system in dealing with sexual assault survivors in sport, @KatCraig1 is an expert in this field and has done excellent work recently in this area. Kat’s observations below is worth noting.