A two-day scientific conference titled “Sport, Health, and Environment “ organized by the Faculty of Sport of the University ”Union – Nikola Tesla“ started with a round table on ”Human rights – rights of athletes”. Interestingly, the Council of Europe chose the Faculty of Sport to launch the topic for the first time, and together with Snežana Samardžić Marković, the Director General of the Directorate for Democracy of the Council of Europe, Brankica Janković, the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality, took part in the discussion and  Dr. Dragan Atanasov, vice-dean of the Faculty of Sports, also director of the Judo Federation of Serbia.

Among the guests of the Faculty of Sport in New Belgrade were deans of related faculties from Serbia, but also from Russia, Poland, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as famous sports workers and officials: Jean Grasia, vice president of the European Athletics Federation, Svetozar Mijailovic, president of the FC Red Star, Bratislav Djordjevic, former basketball coach, Milena Reljin, celebrated gymnast, Dragan Jovic, famous trainer …

– Like every year, the Faculty of Sport is trying to make the Scientific Conferences not only interesting to scientists, professors, researchers, but also the whole system of sports, so this year we delegated two themes: “Human Rights – Real Athletes” and “Diplomacy in Sports”. Their actuality, bearing in mind the numerous challenges that a whole modern civilization faces, is another reason why we chose to deal with this topic –  professor PhD. Ivanka Gajić said in her introductory speech.

The debate on gender equality in sport, the fight against violence against children in sport, hate speech was discussed, but the biggest debate was guided by whether the rigorous rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency violate the human rights of athletes, and above all the right to freedom of movement.

– Athletes are obliged to report to the Antidoping Agency their place of residence, because if the control does not find them at the registered address they receive a yellow card. Three yellow cards automatically signify four years of suspension – it was the statement of Dragan Atanasov, which was compiled by Snežana Samardžić Marković.

– When something that threatens justice comes up, it should be uprooted. They should not be victims if they did not know what they did. But, you need to be careful in the procedure of proof. There is also the role of institutions, i.e. clubs and trainers, as they need to inform the athlete what they are obligated to sign an anti-doping agency contract.

She also stressed that it is very important for the Council of Europe to preserve the autonomy of sports and CAS.

– Sport is a dream of justice, a healthy life and it can fall apart in front of our eyes if nothing is done. The Council of Europe has been given the mandate and a request from sports ministers to review the European Charter of Sport and we will begin to work on it next year. This will be done by EPAS, and will be attended by colleagues from national ministries. Also, the revision of the European Charter of Sport will be done by the non-governmental sector, those who are representatives of the federations – said Snežana Samardžić Marković, on the panel.

The scientific conference “Sport, Health, Environment“ continues on Friday with a panel discussion on the subject of “Sports Diplomacy”, and then 40 scientific papers from different fields of sport will be presented.