The German Football Association (DFB) is furthering the dialogue surrounding the situation in World Cup host nation Qatar and holding a “Sport and human rights: Measures ahead of, during and after the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022” conference at the DFB Campus in Frankfurt am Main on Monday. Alongside DFB president Bernd Neuendorf and national teams and academy director Oliver Bierhoff, the event will also feature the likes of Luise Amtsberg, member of the Bundestag and government representative for human-rights policy and humanitarian aid, Lise Klaveness, president of the Norwegian FA, and H.E. Sheikh Abdulla Bin Mohammed bin Saud Al-Thani, the Qatari ambassador to Germany. There will also be keynote speeches from Markus N. Beeko, secretary general of Amnesty International Germany, Christian Mihr, CEO of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Dietmar Schäfers, vice president of Building and Wood Workers’ International, and Dario Minden, vice chairman of Unsere Kurve.
Four dialogue forums will be the focus at the conference, during which the role of the DFB and others taking part in the World Cup will be discussed in light of the human-rights situation in Qatar, aiming to answer questions like, “What is the assessment of the measures taken so far?”, “What is expected of those taking part in the World Cup?” and “What measures are needed in order to for the issue of human rights to be dealt with better in professional sport in the long term?”. On top of that, Celia Šašić, DFB vice president for equality and diversity, Germany handball international Patrick Groetzki and long-distance racewalker Jonathan Hilbert will talk about their roles and scope of influence at sporting events. Finally, a panel discussion will look ahead to the future to ask what politics and sport can learn from each other and from the 2022 World Cup.
DFB president Bernd Neuendorf said: “We’re looking ahead to the situation in Qatar and are participating actively in the discussion together with the relevant people. It’s only by working together that we can use the experiences of this World Cup to draw the necessary conclusions for the future hosting of major sporting events, and we’re in close communication with human-rights organisations, women’s initiatives, politicians, fan organisations and representatives of LGBTQI+ groups. With our conference, we hope to further this dialogue as we close in on two months to go to the World Cup. The DFB has a responsibility, and we intend to live up to it regarding Qatar.”
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The German Football Association (DFB) is furthering the dialogue surrounding the situation in World Cup host nation Qatar and holding a “Sport and human rights: Measures ahead of, during and after the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022” conference at the DFB Campus in Frankfurt am Main on Monday. Alongside DFB president Bernd Neuendorf and national teams and academy director Oliver Bierhoff, the event will also feature the likes of Luise Amtsberg, member of the Bundestag and government representative for human-rights policy and humanitarian aid, Lise Klaveness, president of the Norwegian FA, and H.E. Sheikh Abdulla Bin Mohammed bin Saud Al-Thani, the Qatari ambassador to Germany. There will also be keynote speeches from Markus N. Beeko, secretary general of Amnesty International Germany, Christian Mihr, CEO of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Dietmar Schäfers, vice president of Building and Wood Workers’ International, and Dario Minden, vice chairman of Unsere Kurve.
Four dialogue forums will be the focus at the conference, during which the role of the DFB and others taking part in the World Cup will be discussed in light of the human-rights situation in Qatar, aiming to answer questions like, “What is the assessment of the measures taken so far?”, “What is expected of those taking part in the World Cup?” and “What measures are needed in order to for the issue of human rights to be dealt with better in professional sport in the long term?”. On top of that, Celia Šašić, DFB vice president for equality and diversity, Germany handball international Patrick Groetzki and long-distance racewalker Jonathan Hilbert will talk about their roles and scope of influence at sporting events. Finally, a panel discussion will look ahead to the future to ask what politics and sport can learn from each other and from the 2022 World Cup.
DFB president Bernd Neuendorf said: “We’re looking ahead to the situation in Qatar and are participating actively in the discussion together with the relevant people. It’s only by working together that we can use the experiences of this World Cup to draw the necessary conclusions for the future hosting of major sporting events, and we’re in close communication with human-rights organisations, women’s initiatives, politicians, fan organisations and representatives of LGBTQI+ groups. With our conference, we hope to further this dialogue as we close in on two months to go to the World Cup. The DFB has a responsibility, and we intend to live up to it regarding Qatar.”
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