The CEO of the Institute of National Anti-Doping Organisations welcomes the human rights initiative from the couple who exposed state-sponsored doping in Russia: “The human rights perspective is important for the public to realise what systematic doping means and what it does to people."

The Council of Europa has begun a revision of the European Sports Charter that lays down the basic principles for national sports policies in member states. Human rights in sport is an important part of the process.

Rule 50.2 in the IOC’s Charter is a clear violation of the human rights of athletes to free speech and expression, argues Nikki Dryden who proposes a framework for how the IOC should view speech and create a fair and transparent process for alleged breaches of Rule 50.2.

Athletes’ gestures is a form of non-verbal communication that is protected in international human rights law, explains Faraz Shahlaei and argues that sport governing bodies need to comply with international norms.

IOC President Thomas Bach made it very clear in his New Year’s speech that politics should be kept out of the Olympics to protect the event’s neutrality. However, it is a paradox that IOC’s characterisation of politicisation only seems to apply to athletes and not the host nations, writes Play the Game’s analyst Stanis Elsborg.

It was not primarily the athletes that drove the radical change of the sports agenda in the decade we leave. But there are signs that athletes will be at the heart of the agenda of the 2020’ies, writes Play the Game’s international director in a wind-up of ten turbulent years in world sport.

New Olympic and amateur sport legislation in U.S. Congress, while less anti-athlete, must do more to protect child athletes, and so should the IOC. Gigi Alford from the World Players Association and Sport & Rights Alliance comments on a congressional bill.

On the eve of the IAAF World Athletic Championship in Doha, new media reports of a corrupt bidding process tarnished the host country Qatar. Two weeks ago, Amnesty International accused the country of one more breach of the promise to improve workers’ rights. But according to the International Labour Organisation, Qatar has also made great progress and more is to come.