NEW HUMAN RIGHTS CLAUSE FROM UEFA

UEFA has added a humanrights provision to its guidelines for hosting the 2024 European Championships, which Germany and Turkey have formally declared an interest in staging.

The European governing body laid on a bid workshop in Nyon last week for representatives of the German and Turkish football federations, showcasing details of the bid procedure and requirements as well as the necessary conditions to be met by applicants to the process.

For the first time hosts must meet specified criteria related to human rights, guided by the United Nations’ conventions and its association with the Sport and Rights Alliance.

Earlier this year, the UN human rights office published a report detailing “serious human rights violations committed between July 2015 and December 2016 in southeast Turkey”, the veracity of which the Tu r k i s h government contested.

Both associations have until April 27, 2018 t o complete and submit their bid dossiers to Uefa.

Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin said: “The protection of human rights and labour rights is of the utmost importance for Uefa. It was imperative for us to i ntroduce specific articles on the respect and protection of human rights in the bidding requirements for all of our competitions.

“From now on, bidding nations will have to adhere strictly to these articles.”