CSUSOP - Olympic Charter amendments
CSUSOP stands for the Commission of the State of U.S. Olympics and Paralympics.
The Empowering Olympic, Paralympic, and Amateur Athletes Act of 2020 requires the CSUSOP to describe proposed reforms to the structure of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) and to analyze the participation in amateur athletics of disabled individuals.
The CSUSOP completed its work on September 30 and will submit a report to Congress this Spring. However, I am requesting the CSUSOP at the last minute to look at the revised Olympic Charter, which was amended by the International Olympic Committee (I.O.C.) on its first day of meetings of the 141st Session in Mumbai, India, yesterday to strengthen its human rights commitments.
The two key language changes are to the “Fundamental Principles of Olympism,” No. 1 and No. 4:
Modification to No. 1, in pertinent part:
Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example, social responsibility, and respect for internationally recognized human rights and universal fundamental ethical principles within the remit of the Olympic Movement.
Modification to No. 4, in relevant part:
Every individual must have access to the practice of sport, without discrimination of any kind, in respect of internationally recognized human rights within the remit of the Olympic Movement. The Olympic spirit requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity, and fair play.
This newsletter aims to tell you that the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOC) has excluded the Deaflympians from its sports program and has yet to recognize the name of Deaflympics.
On September 8, The Sports Examiners wrote:
Jeff Mansfield, the President of the U.S.A. Deaf Sports Federation pointed out that the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 did not make any allowance for special support for deaf athletes. The current USOPC alignment with the International Paralympic Committee has left deaf athletes – who participate in a separate multi-sport event, the Deaflympics – on their own, especially compared to Paralympians supported by the USOPC. He asked for an amendment to the Act to require the USOPC to assist deaf athletes in the same way.
You can watch/read Mansfield’s 5-minute testimony - Click the C-Span video and slide the timestamp to 1:01:26.
Then, slide to 1:08:20 to see Mansfield’s response to questions about the relationship between the Deaflympics and the Paralympics, the challenges faced by deaf athletes, and the barriers to participation.
Finally, slide to 1:13:36 to listen to Mansfield’s response to whether Safe Sport currently protects deaf athletes.
[Note: Scroll down this C-Span website and read text messages.]
Deaf Rights Are Human Rights
In today’s issue, The Sports Examiners cautioned that “There is also no specific reference to what constitutes ‘internationally recognized human rights.’ But this continues the I.O.C.’s march to line the I.O.C. up with the guidelines of the United Nations as a stamp of approval.”
Article 30 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities states:
5. With a view to enabling persons with disabilities to participate on an equal basis with others in recreational, leisure and sporting activities, States Parties shall take appropriate measures:
a) To encourage and promote the participation, to the fullest extent possible, of persons with disabilities in mainstream sporting activities at all levels;
b) To ensure that persons with disabilities have an opportunity to organize, develop and participate in disability-specific sporting and recreational activities and, to this end, encourage the provision, on an equal basis with others, of appropriate instruction, training and resources;
c) To ensure that persons with disabilities have access to sporting, recreational and tourism venues;
d) To ensure that children with disabilities have equal access with other children to participation in play, recreation and leisure and sporting activities, including those activities in the school system;
(e) To ensure that persons with disabilities have access to services from those involved in the organization of recreational, tourism, leisure and sporting activities.
World Federation of the Deaf quotes:
Human rights are universal, indivisible, and interconnected. They belong to all people, regardless of gender, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status, such as disability or deafness.
In her public comment to CSUSOP, Donalda Ammons, a former President of the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf, pleaded:
"To achieve these environments, I resolutely believe it is necessary for Congress and the USOPC to establish funding mechanisms and implement structural reforms—including revising the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act to insert the Deaflympics alongside the Olympics and the Paralympics so that Deaf and Hard of Hearing Americans are better protected from abuse, mistreatment, and discrimination and are afforded equal access to the provisions of the Act as covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act."
In her excellent work, “The Increasing Role of Disability Issues in U.S. Sports Law,” CSUSOP Co-Chair Dionne Koller wrote:
“an individual is disabled within the meaning of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 if he or she has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. (Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. § 12102(1))”
Should the Commission of the State of U.S. Olympics and Paralympics consider the inclusion of the Deaflympics in our National Olympic Committee's program?
