More than 80 sport experts are gathering in Riga, Latvia, to define how to make anti-doping procedures fairer for athletes. The Conference, co-organised by the Council of Europe and the Latvian Presidency of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers, aims at analysing national and international anti-doping procedures and identifying good practices and possible gaps in legislation and in practice.

The conference was opened by Council of Europe Deputy Secretary General Bjørn Berge via video message and the Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Health Artjoms Uršuļskis. High-level experts and practitioners from anti-doping organisations, disciplinary and appeal bodies, lawyers, academics as well as athletes from more than 30 countries and sports organisations discussed the Recommendation adopted last year by the Council of Europe to strengthen human rights principles in anti-doping procedures and to ensure the full implementation of Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights: the right to a fair trial.

In his speech, Deputy Secretary General Bjørn Berge emphasised that while important positive progress is already underway, legal proceedings in sports need to be fair, transparent and in line with our rule of law principles.

“Build on solid jurisprudence, the Council of Europe Recommendation on fair procedure applicable to anti-doping in sports provides guidance on key areas such as the composition, independence and impartiality of anti-doping panels, as well as the advantage of public hearings and access to documents”, he said.

The Monitoring Group of the Council of Europe Anti-Doping Convention will take stock of the conference conclusions and work with its 52 member states to make anti-doping procedures fairer for athletes.