UNESCO International Convention Against Doping in Sport

UNESCO, the United National Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, is a specialised UN agency. It promotes international co-operation among its current 191 member states and six associate members in the areas of Education , social and natural science, culture and communication. Its remit also extends to sport.

In October 2005 at the UNESCO 33rd General Conference, member states were unanimous in their support for the International Convention against Doping in Sport, which resulted in the Convention being adopted on 19 October.

The Convention is the first instrument aimed at eradicating doping in sport that is both legally binding and has an international reach. In particular, the Convention accomplishes the following:

Sets out governments’ responsibilities in the fight against doping in sport;
Recognises the non-governmental organisation, the World Anti-Doping Agency, in leading governments and the Sporting Movement in the drug-free sport campaign;
Provides a vehicle for governments to support sport in becoming compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code whether that is through legislation or regulation, or in the case of the UK, through administrative means;
Provides formal recognition of the World Anti-Doping Code, which will bring equality to anti-doping procedures in every sport, in every country , and for every elite athlete, thereby helping to create a level playing field.

The World Anti-Doping Code has been developed by the Olympic Movement and government under the auspices of the World Anti-Doping Agency. The Code is an international set of rules and guidelines created to protect sport from doping. It aims to simplify the anti-doping rules across all sports and all countries.

The Code is supported by four International Standards which outline mandatory systems and processes for testing, the therapeutic use of prohibited substances or methods, the Prohibited List and WADA accredited laboratory processes.

Some of the core principles contained in the Code include:

Upholding the strict liability principle whereby an athlete is responsible for any prohibited substances found in their body;
Bodily samples can only be analysed by WADA-accredited laboratories;
Standardisation of sanctions across all sports: typically two years for a first offence and life ban for a second offence;
Athletes found to have committed a doping offence have the fundamental right to an independent and fair disciplinary hearing and appeal;
Clear guidance for athletes on what constitutes a doping violation.

The purpose of the Convention is to fulfil a political commitment that governments made when they became a signatories to the Copenhagen Declaration on Anti-Doping in Sport (March 2003).

The Declaration stated that for the fight against doping in sport to move forward apace, a convention or a similar legally binding instrument needed to be developed and implemented. The aim being to impose a legal obligation on all governments to work with sport, under the auspices of the World Anti-Doping Agency, to eradicate doping in sport.

The Convention formalises within a legal framework a previous undertaking made through the Copenhagen Declaration on Anti-Doping in Sport that governments would contribute collectively to fund half of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s operational budget. The Olympic Movement matches payments made by governments.

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