Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser wants to make human rights a priority in her sports policy.

There is no doubt that human rights violations will take place in Beijing as well as in Qatar, the cornerstones of the 2022 sports year with the Winter Olympics and the soccer World Cup, she said at a conference in her house on Tuesday in Berlin, a few weeks after the Human Rights Committee discussed the issue of sport dealt with a few weeks before the Sport Committee will have the subject on its agenda.

Human rights violations should be named and something should be done about them.

Sport has the power to do that.

"The awarding of major events is the decisive momentum," said Nancy Faeser.

Michael Reinsch

Correspondent for sports in Berlin.

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The SPD politician praised the President of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), her fellow party member Thomas Weikert, for his announcement that he would include the commitment to human rights in the association's statutes at the general assembly in December, where he will stand for re-election.

“Sport has to face up to its responsibility over the long term,” said Thomas Weikert.

Before being included in the statutes, an advisory board for human rights should be appointed and a corresponding draft drawn up.

The step of the DOSB is an example, said Faeser, which she invites to follow.

Football European Championship 2024 in Germany

However, the minister's commitment to human rights has one condition: "Not on the backs of the athletes." The government representative for human rights and humanitarian aid, the Greens MP Luise Amtsberg, called sport and human rights an opportunity, but also made it clear: “Boycotts don't solve the problem.” The two politicians agree with the mantra of organized sport that it is unreasonable for athletes not to participate in sporting events, even in rogue states, dictatorships and warmongers.

Just three years ago, Sport and the Ministry of the Interior, then led by Horst Seehofer, moved away from the stance that a German team's participation in the meaningless European Games in Minsk, the capital of Lukashenko's Belarus, should not be subsidized with taxpayers' money, when sports associations were banning their competitions in upgraded this country as a qualifier for the Tokyo Olympics.

Nancy Faeser declared that the European Football Championship in two years' time in Germany was an obligation for the government to set a good example in matters of human rights.

Luise Amtsberg added that Germany could be a pioneer and set standards, citing the areas of construction, catering and security.

The tournament will take place in ten Bundesliga stadiums.

Good sporting events are more than perfect organization, said State Secretary Juliane Seifert.

They radiate out into society and are the responsibility of society.

In this way they could and should receive added value.

The conference on Tuesday in Berlin took place without the previous department head for sports in the Ministry of the Interior;

Beate Lohmann was surprisingly retired three weeks ago.

Parliamentary State Secretary Mahmut Özdemir was absent due to an injury he sustained as a member of the FC Bundestag at the European Parliamentarians' Championship in Lahti.