The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, condemned the humiliation received last Sunday by Real Madrid player Vinicius Junior, and called on organizers of sporting events to implement a “strategy to avoid racism in sport”.
“The racist abuse by Vinicius Jr. this Sunday reminds us of the pervasiveness of racism in sport, and I ask those who run sporting events to implement strategies on the ground and organize to avoid it.” ,
More is needed to eliminate racial discrimination, and this must start with taking real steps to listen to people of African descent, to include them and to address their core concerns,” said the Austrian High Commissioner.
Guide to associations
“We need to look at sport and human rights from a broader perspective,” said Turk, who also pointed out that the last World Cup in Qatar had also seen a worrying attitude. Türk said that in the wake of these incidents, his office is interested in “guiding sports federations” on how to put human rights standards into practice, “to fight against stigma, racism or discrimination against the LGBTI community.”
The High Commissioner said at the end of the press conference that the response of the Spanish authorities to the case of Vinicius had been “energetic”, with the rapid arrests of the alleged perpetrators of the abuses, but stressed that the companies themselves would also have to re-create these incidents. efforts to prevent it from happening. “Everyone should ask themselves: am I prejudiced, do I measure my words, how do I react when someone makes a racist comment?” he told reporters.
Violence
The High Commissioner linked the attacks on Vinicius to the killing of George Floyd in the US three years earlier, noting that “it is clear that the problem of police brutality against people of African descent will not be solved until we address the wider problem”. Doesn’t deal with the systematic display of racism that pervades every aspect of our lives.
Regarding this police brutality, Turk regretted that exemplary punishment against the perpetrators of the crime of George Floyd “remains an exception in the United States and globally.” “I am concerned by the frequent reports of deaths and injuries of people of African origin in relation to security forces in several countries,” warned the High Commissioner, who called for “swift and firm action” by the authorities to guarantee Justice in each of these cases.
