Doping illegal acts are "punished" to help create a clean sports environment
Enhancing the awareness of rules and abiding by sports practitioners
● Anti-doping is the consensus of the world. Our country has always been advancing the anti-doping struggle and continuously strengthening anti-doping legislation.
● The criminalization of doping violations is an important step taken by our country in the fight against doping. It provides a strong judicial guarantee for severely cracking down on doping crimes. As a responsible country, our country has established the rule of law and the rule of law. An important measure of image
● After the implementation of the Criminal Law Amendment (11), the relevant regulations should be coordinated and connected in the specific implementation process to clarify the applicable scope and circumstances of criminal penalties, administrative penalties and industry self-discipline, and improve the punishment mechanism for stimulant violations and laws
□ Our reporter Xu Wei
□ Trainee reporter Liu Xin
On December 26, 2020, the Twenty-Fourth Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People’s Congress voted to pass the Criminal Law Amendment (11), adding a crime related to doping. punishment".
It is understood that Article 355 of the revised Criminal Law stipulates that inducing, abetting or deceiving athletes to use stimulants to participate in major domestic and international sports competitions, or to provide stimulants to athletes knowingly participating in the above competitions is serious. If they are sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention, they shall also be fined.
Organizing or forcing athletes to use doping to participate in major domestic or international sports competitions shall be severely punished in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph.
Anti-doping is the consensus of the whole world. Our country has always insisted on advancing the anti-doping struggle and continuously strengthened anti-doping legislation.
When the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics are being planned, this move is even more significant.
Chen Zhiyu, executive director of the Anti-Doping Center of the General Administration of Sport of China, believes that this provision is of great practical significance for improving the level of legalization of anti-doping work and comprehensively advancing the anti-doping struggle.
Liu Yan, president of the Beijing Law Society Sports Law and Olympic Legal Affairs Research Association and former director of the Policy and Regulation Department of the General Administration of Sports, said in an interview with a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily that the Criminal Law Amendment (11) added charges related to doping. It is a far-reaching and important step taken by China in the fight against doping. It provides a strong judicial guarantee for severely cracking down on doping crimes. It is an important measure for China to establish the image of governing the country by law as a responsible country.
Interest-driven
Anti-doping has a long way to go
The problem of doping in sports has a long history, and it can even be traced back to the ancient Olympic Games in BC.
Some documents pointed out that in the ancient Olympics, athletes took herbal medicine and drinking alcohol to pursue better performance. This can be said to be the earliest prototype of doping.
Nowadays, stimulants generally refer to not only those drugs that have a stimulant effect, but the general term for prohibited drugs.
The "Olympic Charter" points out that the Olympic spirit is the spirit of mutual understanding, friendship, unity and fair competition.
Taking stimulants to compete is obviously against the spirit of fair competition.
In the 1904 St. Louis Olympic Games, American marathon runner Hicks took "Strychnine", becoming the first drug-taking athlete in the history of the modern Olympic Games.
At the 1960 Rome Olympics, Danish cyclist Ke Jensen died suddenly during the race. An autopsy revealed that his death was caused by a mixture of alcohol and phenyleneamine.
As a result, the issue of anti-doping has attracted unprecedented attention from the International Olympic Committee.
During the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, syringes discarded by athletes can be seen everywhere in the toilets of the Olympic Village.
Subsequently, the International Olympic Committee decided to implement doping testing at the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games.
In March 2003, at the Second Anti-Doping Conference held in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, the first "World Anti-Doping Regulations" was passed in history.
The day before the opening ceremony of the 2006 Football World Cup, the FIFA General Assembly voted to fully comply with the World Anti-Doping Regulations.
So far, many international sports organizations have become members of the international anti-doping system.
At present, the variety of doping agents continues to increase, which undoubtedly increases the difficulty of the fight against doping.
Recently, the State Sports General Administration, the Ministry of Commerce, the National Health Commission, the General Administration of Customs and the National Medical Products Administration jointly issued the "Announcement on the 2021 Doping Catalogue."
According to statistics, my country's 2021 stimulant catalog contains 358 kinds of stimulants, an increase of 9 varieties from the 2020 stimulant catalog.
Han Yong, a professor at the Capital Institute of Physical Education and an anti-doping arbitrator of the International Sports Arbitration Institute, said that participating in the use of doping not only damages the athlete's body, but also damages the principles of fair competition in sports.
However, due to the huge interest temptation and the concealment of the use, the fight against doping will be long, arduous and complicated.
Improve anti-doping levels
Make sure to compete cleanly
In September 2018, the State Sports General Administration announced the "Anti-Doping Work Plan for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics", emphasizing the overall improvement of the anti-doping work level and ensuring clean participation.
In recent years, my country has continuously strengthened its anti-doping work, in particular, has continuously improved the level of legalization of anti-doping work.
Han Yong said that my country has established a relatively complete anti-doping laws and regulations system.
my country has signed and joined the "International Convention against Doping in Sports" and the "World Anti-Doping Regulations" and promised to recognize the rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
The Sports Law incorporates anti-doping into the scope of national law, and the "Anti-Doping Regulations" and "Anti-Doping Rules" all play an important role in anti-doping work.
A reporter from the Rule of Law Daily found that in the past practice, the penalties for using doping were mainly administrative penalties and penalties for violations made by the industry.
Han Yong analyzed that in the fight against doping, relying solely on administrative punishment and industry self-discipline has limitations.
It is effective to regulate athletes’ self-doping behavior with disciplinary measures such as suspension of competition. Losing the opportunity to participate is a great punishment for athletes.
But for the violations of coaches and other relevant personnel, the punishment of sports organizations cannot produce a real deterrent.
International Olympic Committee President Bach once pointed out that one of the focuses of the anti-doping struggle in the future should be how to encourage the government to participate more in combating athlete support personnel.
Before the passage of the Criminal Law Amendment (11), my country had begun to use criminal means to crack down on smuggling, illegal business, and illegal use of stimulants.
In November 2019, the Supreme People’s Court issued the "Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Criminal Cases of Smuggling, Illegal Business, and Illegal Use of Doping". However, judicial interpretations can only be made on the basis of the existing criminal charges, which was not There is no criminal law clause concerning the protection of fair competition in sports and the physical and mental health of athletes, so the judicial interpretation cannot provide for this.
The “punishment” of illegal doping acts provides a criminal basis for severely cracking down on doping crimes in accordance with the law.
"The'criminal' of illegal doping behaviors has demonstrated to the world our country's clear stand against the use of doping in sports. It is an important milestone in our country's anti-doping work." Han Yong said.
Improve long-term governance mechanism
Actively connect the rules
According to Gao Songjiang, deputy director of the Sports Business Committee of the Shanghai Lawyers Association, at present, my country’s anti-doping penalties and rules are more severe and richer than those of many world sports powers.
So after the illegal act of doping is "punished", will sportsmen use doping all subject to penal regulations?
Liu Yan said that the "punishment" of doping violations frequently mentioned by the media recently is essentially guiding, instigating, deceiving, organizing, and forcing athletes to use doping, and participating in major domestic and international sports competitions is included in the criminal law. Terms.
"According to Article 355 of the revised Criminal Law, not all doping violations constitute a crime. In addition, which competitions belong to major domestic and international sports competitions, and whether the qualifiers or qualifying competitions of such competitions also belong to Major domestic and international sports competitions still need to be further clarified by laws, regulations and judicial interpretations." Liu Yan said.
Han Yong stated that Article 355-1 of the revised Criminal Law does not regulate the self-doping behavior of athletes.
Doping by athletes is generally managed by sports organizations using industry rules, and the state does not intervene.
It should be noted that the fight against doping requires a heavy blow, but it does not mean that all cases involving doping need to be held criminally responsible.
Criminal punishment is the last resort for anti-doping, and it is also the most severe method. It must be implemented strictly in accordance with the law.
According to reports, the "punishment" of illegal doping behaviors can effectively strengthen the awareness of athletes and their support personnel to "hold moral gold medals, style gold medals, and clean gold medals", enhance the awareness of rules and compliance of sports practitioners, and further improve and improve Long-term anti-doping governance mechanism.
At the same time, after the implementation of the Criminal Law Amendment (11), the relevant regulations must be coordinated and connected during the specific implementation process to clarify the applicable scope and circumstances of criminal penalties, administrative penalties and industry self-discipline, and improve penalties for violations of doping discipline and laws. mechanism.
Gao Songjiang said: "Although doping violations have been'punished', the punishment methods are comprehensive and severe. However, in the criminal procedure, there is still a lack of more specific cases for reference, and some new problems may be encountered in the implementation, which require relevant justice. The department makes full use of existing rules to solve the problem. When using criminal methods to control the doping problem, it must actively integrate with the world anti-doping rules."
Liu Yan believes that my country's crackdown on the smuggling and illegal operation of doping, as well as illegal provision, inducement, abetting, and deceptive use is aimed at furthering the anti-doping struggle and creating a clean sports environment.
"Anti-doping should start from the baby." Han Yong said that in the future anti-doping work, education should still be strengthened, especially the education of young athletes, so that athletes are aware of the dangers of doping abuse. Can actively resist the erosion of stimulants.
At the same time, a good social environment must be created.
At present, my country's food, nutrition, and pharmaceutical environment still has certain defects, and it is not uncommon to see cases of positive doping caused by misuse and misuse.
On the one hand, it is necessary to strengthen the education of athletes, coaches, team doctors and related personnel to avoid misunderstanding and misuse. On the other hand, it also requires the joint efforts of the whole society to create a good environment for food, nutrition and medicine.
Liu Yan believes that sports law academic organizations and their members should do more in the field of anti-doping, especially in the promotion of laws and regulations, education of athletes, coaches and related personnel, research on anti-doping laws and regulations, disciplinary punishment and hearings, Make more contributions to sports arbitration.