Check against delivery / Embargo until delivery

Ladies and Gentlemen, dear friends,

Anniversaries are often family events, and looking around the room today, with so many familiar faces before me, I really do feel that I am among family and friends – the “godparents” and guardians of our Convention who have worked for so many years with the Council of Europe in the fight against doping in sport.

I thank in particular Ambassador Eyyubov and his authorities for supporting this event as part of the Azerbaijan chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers, and extend a warm welcome to our invited speakers for this opening session: Dr Jean-Paul Costa, former President of the European Court of Human Rights, Mr David Howman, Director General of WADA, Mr Anders Solheim, Chair of our Monitoring Group, and Ms Pirju Ruutu, Vice Chair of the Monitoring Group.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Our Anti-Doping Convention is twenty-five years old this month, but - perhaps contrary to popular perceptions - the use of substances to enhance sporting performance is a practice with a far-longer history and where attitudes have luckily evolved over the years.

Indeed, in 1904 the winner of the Olympic marathon, Thomas Hicks, was twice administered injections of strychnine by his coach during the race in order to enable him to finish.  The 1950s British cycling professional Jock Andrews used to joke that: "You need never go off-course chasing the peloton in a big race - just follow the trail of empty syringes and dope wrappers."

Thankfully, today it is recognized that the use of performance-enhancing substances is not only against the principles of fair play, but is a clear danger to the health, well-being and human rights of athletes.  Moreover, it is acknowledged that doping in sport presents in a wider sense a risk to society in general, since what happens in elite sport inevitably filters down to influence behaviour at all levels, most worryingly among young people. 

Looking at it from another angle: in the Council of Europe we believe that transmitting our values of human rights, democracy and the rule of law through sport is a way to reach and to influence society as a whole.   Think about it: all of society, in one way or another, has some involvement in or exposure to sport, as participants, spectators, parents, schoolchildren or workers.  

This is why the fight against doping in sport – along with the fight against spectator violence and more recently the fight against match-fixing – is one of the key elements of our standard-setting and monitoring approach, combined more and more with practical assistance in implementation, extended to our member States and beyond.

The Council of Europe Anti-Doping Convention was the first international legal instrument on this topic, and is currently ratified by 52 States in Europe and beyond, including Australia, Canada, Morocco and Tunisia.  It has played a critical role in the development of an advanced anti-doping framework in European countries, backed up by an exchange of good practices and information, which has enabled Europe to lead from the front on this issue.

Over the years, fuelled certainly by the globalization and unprecedented growth in the financial potential of competitive sport, we are increasingly working on this issue with partners at the global level. Other instruments and important mechanisms have joined forces alongside our Convention, in particular the UNESCO Anti-Doping Convention and the World Anti-Doping Code, which is overseen by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). 

I would like to mention too the importance of the collaboration on this theme which has been built up between the public authorities and the sporting world. The sports world has its own governance bodies and regulations, including disciplinary measures, and the athletes themselves have a point of view and rights to be upheld.  It is only through working closely together that we can identify approaches which are accepted by all, which address the real needs, and which really work. In this respect, each party has its role to play. 

For the Council of Europe, our starting point here is the same as our starting point in all our fields of activity.  Namely, bringing together our governments to work on areas of common interest, and with an overarching framework of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.  Concretely, in the field of anti-doping, this means exchanging experience and best practice and coming to a common European position when we meet with our partners on the world stage. 

I know that many of you working in the national anti-doping agencies have found this opportunity to exchange regularly with your peers in Europe to be most fruitful. 

It means also ensuring that the fight against doping takes into account our core values. 

From this perspective, we were very satisfied that the international recognition of the relevance of human rights in the fight against doping is reflected in the 2015 World Anti-Doping Code, which refers for the first time to the principle of proportionality and highlights the importance of the respect of the human rights of athletes.  Our Court of Human Rights has indeed been seized with a number of cases relating to this, as regards the right to privacy and right to family life of athletes.  I am sure that my friend Jean-Paul Costa will say more on this dimension when he takes the floor.

Dear friends,

Anniversaries are celebrations of what has already been achieved.They are also an opportunity to take stock and to look ahead.For us, this translates, I believe, into some very concrete plans for the coming months and years.

• Firstly, the Council of Europe will continue to use its Anti-Doping Convention to contribute effectively to the global fight for clean sport.
  As a partner of WADA, it will assist its member States in playing an active role in the process of the implementation of the new 2015 World Anti-Doping Code. We will continue to place emphasis on working together on the European continent, also with our partners in the European Union, to bring to WADA a co-ordinated and coherent European position to help it to carry out its mandate.

• Secondly, to ensure this good coherence and collaboration on the global level, we must ensure that the monitoring of the compliance of States parties with the Convention is as effective as possible, since this will support the implementation of the new Code. We need to focus on efficiency and quality of monitoring of the compliance by member States, accompanied by appropriately-tailored activities aimed to support State parties in implementing the monitoring recommendations.   We will all work in this direction.

• Thirdly, when implementing the new Code we should all pay attention to avoiding overlaps.  This is why I have stressed the importance of our synergies with other organisations such as WADA and UNESCO. Our monitoring should also become a vehicle to transfer the experience and expertise built-up within the Monitoring Group to the Convention to other States interested in improving their anti-doping policy and practice.

• Finally, I believe that we need to widen our strategy to further improve the effectiveness of the Convention in fighting for clean sport.   Internally, we should look at enhancing partnerships between various Council of Europe bodies and instruments: the European Convention on Human Rights, the Medicrime Convention and the EDQM are only a few possible examples. Externally, we will continue to work closely with other international organisations, with the sports world and with the public authorities of other regions of the world.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As we are all very much aware, the fight against doping in sport is by no means won, despite some important victories in recent years.  We are chasing a moving target, and we sometimes have the impression that the odds are stacked on the side of our opponent.  To succeed, we need to work together across borders, across disciplines and across all the stakeholders.  Your work is a key part of this joined-up approach.  Thank you for your commitment.