EU reaffirms commitment to combat racism in sport at UN Human Rights Council

The European Union, in a statement delivered on 2 July 2026 at the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council, reaffirmed its commitment to combat all forms of racism in sport, highlighting the EU's Anti-Racism Strategy and the role of sport in fostering inclusive societies. The statement, made during an interactive dialogue with the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, thanked the rapporteur for reports on racism and stressed that combating racism requires both legal enforcement and shaping attitudes.

The EU's Anti-Racism Strategy identifies sport as an environment where racism and hate speech are prone to occur and develops targeted actions to counter this. The EU views sport as a social space where people from diverse backgrounds can challenge stereotypes and promote values such as respect and equality. To address disparities affecting equal participation, the EU supports education-based initiatives and youth sports through its 'Erasmus+ Sport' programme, promoting inclusion for groups facing barriers and addressing racism, xenophobia, and gender discrimination.

The EU welcomed the rapporteur's intersectional approach, particularly regarding participation of women and girls in sport, and asked what best practices have been identified for addressing intersectional discrimination between race and gender in grassroots sports.

Regarding the rapporteur's second report, the EU recalled the words of the previous Special Rapporteur, noting that Russia has sought to justify its military invasion and territorial aggression in Ukraine on the purported basis of eliminating neo-Nazism, and that such use of neo-Nazism as a pretext seriously undermines genuine attempts to combat this ideology.