Sport, in its many dimensions and practices, has always played an essential role in human and societal development, with civilizations, social and individual impact throughout history.

With its close link to human development, and as with other aspect of life in society, sport cannot be dissociated from its human rights dimension.

For many decades, the Council of Europe has developed specific work on sports, notably through its Sports Conventions and the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS), which provides a platform for intergovernmental sports co-operation between the public authorities of its 41 member states, from Europe and beyond. The EPAS consultative committee gathers 30 sport organisations and NGOS, providing a unique connection with stakeholders, practitioners and athletes.

In 2025, sports are high on the North-South Centre (NSC)’s agenda, with the initiative enabling refugees to compete in the Olympic and Paralympic Games as one of the laureates of the 2024 North-South Prize of the Council of Europe, which in turn inspired a North-South Dialogues round table on the power of sport as a tool for development and inclusion. The HEY course on values-based sports and sport integrity will be launch in May and implemented in June and July.

In this context, the NSC, in cooperation with EPAS and other partners, is launching an awareness raising campaign which will serve as a framework to disseminate different initiatives, standards, resources and opportunities, while promoting the notion that human rights are always a dimension of sports: There are always human rights in sports.

#alwayshumanrights #AlwaysHumanRightsinSports

Objectives

This awareness-raising action seeks to:

Raise awareness on sport integrity, value-based sport and human rights in
and through sport;

Promote intercultural dialogue using sports and its language as frameworks

Promote CoE conventions, tools and work in the field of sports and ethics,
integrity and human rights;

Contribute to sport being more ethical, inclusive, and safe;

Support the HEY Course on sport integrity and values-based sport.

Promote key events and initiatives related to sports happening in May 2025