Join us for an online leadership dialogue on racism and hate speech at sports events on Wednesday, 14 April 2021, from 9:30 am to 11:00 am

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Back Join us for an online leadership dialogue on racism and hate speech at sports events on Wednesday, 14 April 2021, from 9:30 am to 11:00 am

Are you worried about racism and hate speech in sport, and notably in football stadia?

Sports events are too often the theater of incidents of racism, homophobia, sexism and other manifestations of hate speech.

In some occasions, the incidents also degenerate into physical violence involving many supporters or/and result in the interruption of the event. The risk of such incidents also obliges some organisers to limit or deny access of supporters to sports events. In all cases, this is unacceptable behavior that must be prevented and tackled.

The Council of Europe Convention on an integrated safety, security and service approach at football matches and other sport events (the St Denis Convention) is a new treaty that offers an international legal and cooperation platform to address violence and misbehavior and promote Human Rights of all participants in sports events.To discuss the existing and emerging challenges, we have gathered a panel of persons in leadership positions who are addressing racism and hate speech from various perspectives. They will engage in a conversation aiming at explaining what is being done and, more importantly, what remains to be done.

Please see the event's programme here

To watch the video in English, please click here

To watch the video in the language chosen by the speaker (English or French), click here

To read the Highlights of the event, please click here

This event is organised within the framework of the first meeting of the Committee of the Saint-Denis Convention, which aims to make football matches and other sports events safer, more secure and more welcoming for all. For more information on the Saint-Denis Convention, visit the dedicated webpage.

7 April 2021 Strasbourg

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Spectator violence

For the Council of Europe, sport is a force for social integration, tolerance and understanding. As the single most popular activity in society today, sport plays a most distinctive role. It is open to all, regardless of age, language, religion, culture or ability.

Sport provides the opportunity to learn to play by commonly agreed rules, to behave with fairness in victory and in defeat, and to develop not only the physical being, but also social competences and ethical values. Its positive role in education is also increasingly acknowledged. Sport brings a key contribution to the promotion of the core values of the Council of Europe: democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

For its part, the Council of Europe acts firmly against some of the negative aspects of sport - violence and doping - through two conventions: the European Convention on Spectator Violence and Misbehaviour at Sports Events and in particular at Football Matches (ETS No. 120) and the Anti-Doping Convention (ETS No. 135).

Violence is the most common form of violation of human rights affecting all human beings. The fight against violence – whichever form it may take - and its prevention forms one of the cornerstones of the Council of Europe’s priorities and subsequently its activities. In 1983, the Council of Europe voiced its determination to combat violence in sport with an initial recommendation from its Parliamentary Assembly on the cultural and educational means of reducing violence.

In response, the Committee of Ministers advocated a series of measures in 1984 to reduce spectator violence at sports events, particularly at football matches. The Heysel disaster in May 1985 lent new urgency to this work. Many Europeans felt concerned by such violence and its repercussions. The tragedy provided the dramatic backdrop to the opening for signature, in Strasbourg on 19 August 1985, of the European Convention on Spectator Violence and Misbehaviour at Sports Events and in particular at Football Matches, which came into force extremely rapidly on 1 November 1985.

More than three decades after the launch of the convention, the progress is notable. National legislation and security regulations comply more and more with the recommendations made in the European Convention on Spectator Violence and Misbehaviour at Sports Events, supporters are better managed and this significantly reduces the risk of such disasters happening.

The Standing Committee, in charge of the implementation of the Convention, evolved from a security approach to a safety and later to a service one, which naturally enables it to draft the new convention on an integrated safety, security and service approach at football matches and other sports events.

T-RV Standing Committee

The Heysel Stadium disaster (May 1985) shook the world and revealed the need to urgently take measures to increase security at sports events.
Prepared in a record time, the European Convention on Spectator Violence and Misbehaviour at Sports Events and in particular at Football Matches was the response to that need. It was adopted on 19 August 1985.

The Convention requires States to take practical measures to prevent and control violence and misbehaviour by spectators. It also includes measures to identify and deal with offenders.

The Standing Committee (T-RV Committee) follows the implementation of the Convention and assesses progress achieved. It visits countries, attends high risk matches, discusses issues with key stakeholders and evaluates the measures in place. It then makes recommendations when improvements are needed. The Standing Committee also discusses issues of general concern and adopts recommendations addressed to all States Parties. Over the last three decades, the Committee has adopted 26 recommendations, gradually showing the importance of addressing other two key issues connected to security: the issues of safety and services.

In 2015, the Standing Committee adopted a major recommendation (Rec(2015)1) which gathers, in a single document, all the key guidance provided by the Committee during its thirty years of existence, as well as an impressive collection of best practices in State’s efforts to guarantee safety and security at sports events. The latest update of Rec (2015)1 was adopted in 2020.

All these efforts have paved the way for the adoption in 2016 of a new Convention focusing on an integrated and multiagency approach to safety, security and service at football matches and other sports events, also known as the Saint-Denis Convention.

The St Denis Convention is called to gradually replace the 1985 Convention, as each state that ratifies the new convention must denounce the old one.

To learn more about these texts:

European Convention on Spectator Violence and Misbehaviour at Sports Events and in particular at Football Matches (ETS No. 120)

Recommendation Rec (2015) 1, of the Standing Committee, on Safety, Security and Service at Football Matches and other Sports Events

Convention focusing on an integrated and multiagency approach to safety, security and service at football matches and other sports events Saint-Denis Convention (CETS No. 218)