Respecting the Right to Nationality in International Sport

Abstract

AbstractInternational sports pledge to eradicate discriminatory practices, yet paradoxically continue to support discrimination on the grounds of nationality. Athletes compete as part of a national team. This requires sporting associations and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to make distinctions among athletes merely on the grounds of nationality. The Olympic Charter does this. Because of this need to make nationality distinctions, those associations must also develop nationality rules. These rules force choices of nationality and place restrictions on the ability to compete for the new national team. When athletes wish to change nationality, they risk falling into a nationality limbo, where they cannot compete, for lack of a sports nationality.In contrast to international sporting rules and the Olympic Charter, international human rights law takes a different approach to nationality as a human right. Every individual has a right to a nationality. This nationality is often the source of other rights, such as political participation, employment and education. In addition, this right includes the right to change nationality. However, the IOC limits recognizing nationality changes. The result is that athletes who do not satisfy nationality rules can be deemed de facto stateless for sport, even though the creation of statelessness is largely prohibited. For these reasons, IOC rules on change of nationality do not live up to the Committee’s own human rights aspirations and the Olympic Charter must be amended to respect the rights to nationality.