Izzy ‘entitled’ to his beliefs
RUGBY union star Israel Folau should be free to express his religious views and rugby league players facing sexual assault charges allowed to continue playing, according to civil liberties leaders.
Australian Council for Civil Liberties President Terry O’Gorman has called on major Australian sporting organisations and their sponsors to sign up to minimum international human rights standards.
Rugby Australia issued Folau with a code of conduct breach notice after a social media post where the Wallabies star proclaimed hell awaits “drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists and idolaters”.
The 30-year-old Wallabies fullback yesterday requested the case be referred to a Code of Conduct hearing.
Under the human rights standards supported by Mr O’Gorman, St George Illawarra forward Jack de Belin despite being charged with aggravated sexual assault would play this weekend.
Mr O’Gorman said the launch of the Centre for Sport and Human Rights in June 2018 showed Australia was seriously behind in recent international developments in dealing with human rights issues in major sporting events involving powerful commercial sponsors.
He said major Australian football codes should revamp their procedures in relation to players rights to freedom of expression and basic due process rights including the presumption of innocence when a player was charged but not convicted of a criminal offence.
Mr O’Gorman acknowledged Folau’s social posts about fornicators and homosexuals might be “objectionable to many Australians” but they represented his religious views and “he should be completely free to express them”.
“It might be a different matter if Folau’s posts about fornicators, etc were directed to his fellow team members. The cohesion and compatibility of the team may have to take precedence over free speech issues in that scenario,” he said.
“But clearly, Folau’s comments were not directed at his fellow team members. They are an expression of his fundamentalist religious views to which he is absolutely entitled.”
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