Executive secretary of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance

"The fight against racism is long and never-ending"

The head of this European institution considers that education and prevention are the keys in the fight against discrimination and racism in sport

MANUEL ESTÉVEZ PEÑA AND CARMEN GINARTE NEIRA| Strasbourg-Santiago de Compostela

Johan Friestedt is Executive Secretary of ECRI, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance. This organization was “established 30 years ago” and “is made up of 46 independent experts from each of the member states of the European countries." One of the main objectives of this commission is the prevention and fight against racism and discrimination in sport, as can be seen in its Recommendation Nº12.

—What are the main objectives of ECRI, the organization that you represent, and how does it help fight racism and intolerance in areas such as sports?

—ECRI, the European Commision against Racism and Intolerance is an independent body specialized in monitoring racism and intolerance in Europe, from Portugal to Azerbaijan and from Iceland to Turkey. Because it was established 30 years ago. It is composed of 46 independent experts from each of the member states of the countries of Europe. It used to have 47 members until recently, but racism in Russia is no longer monitored by ECRI since Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe because of the war in Ukraine. So ECRI does continue monitoring work. So that means it regularly goes to each European country, including Spain, to see how racism actually is. It reports about it. It covers racism, discrimination and intolerance in all areas of life. So not only sports but also education, employment, housing, healthcare, and, since 2013, it also looks into homofobia and transfobia.

How does it help? It makes recommendations addressed to governments, and these recommendations can take the form of general policy recommendations. In other words, ECRI turns out general policy recommendations on public health and combat racial discrimination on the field of sports, or country specific recommendations in response to particular problems identified through country visits. It helps by raising the alarm when there is a problem, but also by guiding, as an independent body, government action against racism and intolerance.

—There are well known campaigns in sports against racism. If you had to choose a few recommendations for fighting against “hate speech”, which ones would you highlight and why?

—There are two general policy recommendations that are highly relevant in the field of sports and it is Recommendation number 12 and Recommendation number 15 on combating “hate speech”. As you say, there are well known large scale antiracism and campaigns in football, in particular. They are being organized, coordinated, encouraged or supported by governments, sports clubs, and federations. This has been one key ECRI recommendation for many years, so I think it is an important one. These campaigns have been quite successful because I think we speak more about racism in sports now than we did 30 years ago and I think this is linked to these campaigns. But this is not sufficient. Another key recommendation is perhaps about the rule of referees in preventing and combating racism. They should be invited to react appropriately when athletes, technical staff or supporters engage in racist gestures or expressions. These referees should take action including by interrupting or stopping the sports, even whenever necessary, and they should also report about these racist incidents. I think this is a key recommendation from ECRI many, many years ago. Now we see it more in the fields. We heard about football matches that were interrupted because of racist chants. I think it is one key recommendation, the referees are key. Maybe one other major recommendation is about inviting sports federations and sports clubs to adopt diversity and equal opportunity policies in order to ensure there’s an accurate representation of minority groups in sports at all levels. This is very important because it is not only about the players, it’s also about managers in football federations, for example, and UEFA instructors. I remember a teleconference some years ago, in which Clarence Seedorf, who is a Dutch football legend, drew our attention to the small number of black people at management positions in football federations or in UEFA, for example, when compared to the number of black players in the field. I think these policies make sure that you have full minority groups not only on the ground, but also in the management structures, which is also an important point.

—Circumstances like the wars in Syria and the Ukraine with a lot of refugees led to clear differences in the way Europeans have treated them. In which ways do you perceive differences in the treatment of refugees based on their countries of origin?

—Yes, it’s a bit hard not to remember the quite different approach taken by many European states towards families in Syria and the war in Syria when compared to the huge solidarity that we could see towards Ukraine. Of course, it’s wonderful that we could see such solidarity towards Ukrainians, but in the view of ECRI, there shouldn't be such a difference. This is why in a very recent exceptional public statement that was published last month, ECRI stated that the solidarity shown towards Ukrainians should be the new model for all the people in need of protection and assistance, irrespective of ethnic or national origin, religion, skin colour, citizenship, sexual orientation or gender identity. That’s really important. Let's use this solidarity we see with the Ukrainians to make it the new normal, the new norm for the management of current and future humanitarian crises. There have been reports, actually, of unjustified differential treatment against Roma people or black students fleeing Ukraine and I hope and ECRI hopes that that will be investigated. It should be that everyone who needs protection and assistance should receive it. There should be no difference.

—From your experience, do you think that, in general, the situation has improved or worsened in recent times?

—I would say it is difficult to say if it has improved or worsened, because we speak more about racism. How do you interpret that? Does it mean that there is more racism or does it mean that we are more aware about racism? And that racism is more visible but we are more sensitive and react to it. I guess the answer is what are the trends? I see it especially from politicians. Where in the past we had racist discourse from extremists, now it’s increasingly more mainstream in politics and politicians. This is probably worrying, but at the same time I think society is more aware about racism and I think this is an improvement. I think on one side there is improvement but there is a worsening in the public discourse in particular. As you can see in election campaigns, for example.

—Are there cases of race discrimination, racist insults and attacks on athletes more frequent in any specific sport and, if so, why does this happen?

—I think most incidents, racist incidents, pulled into ECRI are in football, maybe more generally collective sports like handball in a few cases. And those targeted are often players of African descent, black players.There can be several reasons, but ECRI did not elaborate on those reasons. I’m just telling from what I could see as some other reasons. It is, perhaps, that racist incidents in football are more visible than in other sports because football is one of the most popular sports, if not to say the most popular in Europe, and in the world; so that's maybe one explanation. Another one is that there is probably more monitoring of racist incidents in football, in partnership with civilian organizations. I remember in the early 2000’s UEFA and Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) had a partnership about racist incidents. So if you have mechanisms to scrutinize and monitor racist incidents, it becomes more visible, so it may give this impression that there is actually a bigger problem in football, which may not be the case. But there is also one other possible explanation, and this is that there are possibly more issues with football fans during football matches. It goes from so-called “monkey chants” during a football match to the physical assault of people of African descent. I remember these racist chants during a pre-World Cup friendly [match] in 2018 in Russia between France and Russia, and the Russian fans made racist chants during the match, which was targeting black players, Black French players. But that can be also outside the sports events. I think in the Czech Republic, some years ago, we had to speak about the beating of a black person by football hooligans in a tram, and that can be really serious. But it’s true that most cases were about football but the same can be said about handball or hockey. But football was probably the one where we caught more incidents.

—Many athletes are role models for young people, but their attitudes are not always exemplary on the issue of racism. What do you think are the measures that should be adopted in this regard?

—You're right. Athletes are role models for the youth and also less-young people like me. They must understand they are role models of all times, in all circumstances. What they say and what they do matters a lot; it can be in public but also in private, because sometimes what they say in private can become public at some point. I remember last year there was a video circulating showing a French football player mocking Japanese staff helping them, and he apologized later when this video was circulated. It was during a closed-door training, it was supposed to be a closed event, but later the video was circulated. He apologized, but it’s not sufficient. Sports clubs and federations should use the necessary measures, and, I think, also suspensions and the advertising industry should be encouraged to be more careful about the picture they convey when players of these clubs also display racist attitudes and behaviors.

—It is frequently said that we should “extract lessons from the past and educate in the present and for the future”. What recommendations would you make to educational institutions, for example, our secondary school, so as to train tolerant and respectful people in spheres like sports?

—Yeah. I think it’s a very important point that you raise. ECRI has, for many years, emphasized the need for adopting comprehenssive anti-discrimination legislation. The law is one thing, but to change future mindsets, school education is, I think, key. Nobody is born racist, so it is really the duty of the school to ensure inclusive education, to help pupils and students to spot racism and discriminatory behavior, and to report and react to it. And I think school is absolutely essential in giving you the tools to spot it and to react in the future. It's not only about respect and tolerance with people and students of different origin, for example, it’s about committing to effective equality for all. And speaking about sports in particular, sport is an universal language and, of course, there is some kind of competition, but it’s healthy competition and you build the sense of fighting together for common goals. So when you do sports in school, it's probably a very important channel to build the future society you want to live in.

—The first point of the “Recommendation No.12 on Combating Racism and Racial Discrimination in the Field of Sport” refers to equal opportunities in “access to sport for all”. However, becoming a member, even of an amateur sports club, is usually very expensive (paying the inscription, buying clothes). How can federations or local authorities favour that young boys and girls could have access to these sport organisations, when they come from minority backgrounds without economic possibilities?

—Yeah, José Manuel, you put a finger on a very important point. It’s true that ensuring equality of opportunities in access to sports is key, as it’s access to many other sectors such as education or employment, and it requires practical measures by private, local and national authorities, as in the case of sports organizations and federations. These can take the form of allowances to cover the cost of membership, or discounts for low-income families. These did not emerge in ECRI’s reports, perhaps because we have not been focused too much on that or perhaps because there have been other initiatives.

But I think that the key issue is that there should be some proactive measures from the local authorities, from the organizations to help the low income families in whatever format, especially those from low income and minority backgrounds. And perhaps ECRI needs increased attention in the future in particular sports other than football, because I have the impression that there is a lot in the world of football and maybe less in other sports.

—Doing sports and becoming a member of a club can be a great opportunity for the integration of young people from minority groups in a given community. Shouldn,t local authorities be more active in this sense, helping children from minority groups to practice sport and to enter local sports clubs?

—Yes, it is absolutely true. Sports are seen as one effective means of achieving integration and inclusion of young people from minority or migratory backgrounds into the larger community. You must have the sense of working together; it is teamwork and not only in collective sports. This is what ECRI means when it says that local governments should support and facilitate the participation of people with minority backgrounds in sports. But it should go beyond facilitating access to sports clubs. The local authorities should encourage sports clubs to include people from minority backgrounds in the working of local sports structures. So, it is not only giving access to children. This should have people also with minority backgrounds in the structures of local sports, and I think this is a way of making sure the mechanism works in the future.

—Is there any evidence about the racial discrimination and racism suffered by women in comparision with men in the world of sports?

—This is what we would call intersectionality. There is little information in ECRI reports about this when compared to other fields of life. But I believe this is an issue in a number of sports. A black woman playing football in a given club, for instance, maybe has risks of racist hate speech. That’s a guess. I remember a few years ago, not in Europe but during the Rio Olympic Games, a black judoka woman showed her gold medal and took it as a reward against all the racist and sexist online hate speech she suffered during the games. So, this happens really and it is something we should be increasingly looking at during sports events.

—Is there any sort of supervision system that guarantees that such an interesting and necessary document as the ECRI General Policy Recommendation no.12 is implemented or at least known by sports federations and clubs?

—Yes. ECRI is looking into the implementation of its actions, including this conference, or including General Policy Recommendation no. 12, when ECRI visits countries, for example. Although it was adopted many years ago, it has remained highly relevant today. That said, it’s surely not sufficient. We are cooperating with other sectors of the Council of Europe, such as the sports sector. There is another sector in the organization dealing with sports, to make it better known among sports clubs and federations, structures, and governments as well. Our colleagues from the sports sector are working for instance with the UEFA in the football sector. We should look for society partners for helping in the implementation of these recommendations and to reach out to other sport sections as well.

—Taking into account your experience, what are the main differences among the countries belonging to ECRI with regards to their degree of commitment when fighting against racial discrimination in sports?

—The level of commitment in fighting racism in sports is similar to a country’s commitment against racism in other areas. I guess that there is no country focused mainly in the world of sports. When a country adopts rigorous plans and strategies or action plans against racism, I think it is a good indication that there is a strong commitment.And that is a recurrent issue we look at in ECRI, and we recommend, actually, that governments adopt strategies and action plans. It can focus on certain forms of racism or racism in different fields, such as sports. But these, the adoption of strategies and action plans against racism, for us, is a good indication of commitment.

Actually, there are many countries that adopt these action plans and strategies. So this is a good positive point.

—What do you think is the impact that education can have in the prevention of racism and intolerance?

—Education is a key factor, as I said before. It's where it all begins. The better able you are to identify racism and talk about it, the more likely you are to know how to combat it.

—What are the greatest difficulties in achieving your goals and how do you see the future of fighting racism and inequality in Europe?

—Perhaps the first big challenge is to accept that combating racism and racial discrimination is a very long and never ending battle. During many years, ECRI asked governments to send them their anti-discrimination laws and sanctions for combating racist hate speech. It has also played a key role in setting up national equality bodies everywhere in Europe, or almost everywhere. But the long-term objective is prevention. As we often say, it’s better to prevent than cure. And that’s why prevention is one of the greatest challenges of today and tomorrow. Because it’s awareness raising, education, and training that are key areas of prevention. And this is perhaps what we are doing now; it’s about prevention. Talking about racism is a first step, and recognizing that it exists is a first step. Also, ECRI, by nature, looks at what we call structural, institutional racism, not individual racism, not individual complaints about racism. It’s hard to address what structural racism is. It is generally about an unconscious, widespread racial bias. And this sometimes requires a careful look at how our institutions work and about the mindsets of people working in the public and private sectors. So it may also require us to study more carefully our own European national original history, including the dark side of it, and learn from it.

The worst thing is to allow some kind of biased rewriting of history; this may lead to contrite nationalist and racist discourse, and eventually it may lead to war, so this is really important.

This is a big challenge we have to face in the future. Another one, maybe a third one, would be racism in policy. It’s yet another challenge. Now I know you may not remember the death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in the United States resonated so much in Europe and triggered reflections about racism, and that’s good. It also shows that the police and the role of the police is essential. The police should be part of the solution to this fight against racism, but how to make the police collaborate is the key issue when there is, at times, a pattern of racist attitudes and behaviors around some police officers. As to prevention in the internet and social media, there is a clear line between the right to free expression, the right of spreading your personal opinions and ideas and protection from racist speech. the law, sanctions, equal policies. There are many questions about how to stop hate speech on Facebook, Twitter and all the social media and that regulation should be given priority, but we might have to go for stronger measures and maybe stronger laws. There are special police units focusing on this issue. And finally, another challenge in the future is the use of Artificial Intelligence. It’s very new now, but it has some risks concerning racism and inequality. And this would be a great challenge for tomorrow. In a nutshell these could be the main challenges in the fight against racism in the future. And I count on you all to follow that fight.

—Through which media do you spread your actions?

—We talk to the governments of the democratic countries in Europe. But certainly we need to work with what we call equal bodies, national anti-racism organizations, non-governmental organizations, with civil society, to make sure that our recommendations are put into practice and are effective. We need all possible actors. We do not speak directly with sports federations or organizations, but we use all possible channels and all means.

—Do you think racism will be reduced in the future?

—I hope. Unfortunately I tend to think that racism is like a disease. There is no vaccine against racism. So I am afraid it’s a constant struggle. It’s our objective to reduce it to the minimum possible, even to eradicate it, but I am not sure that we will succeed when I see certain reactions or hear certain politicians, in some electoral campaigns, for example. So it should be our objective to reduce and to eliminate it.