The International Anti-Doping Movement and UNESCO: A Historical Case Study

Abstract

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) played a major role in the development of contemporary anti-doping policy. Throughout its existence, and especially since the 1970s, UNESCO has viewed sport as an educational tool. Though it acknowledged the unique problems that drug use in sport presented, UNESCO was reticent to take a leading role in creating and enacting global policy regarding the issue. However, UNESCO eventually came to endorse the World Anti-Doping Agency in 2005 when its member nations adopted the International Convention against Doping in Sport. UNESCO's shift in attitude is explained through the application of institutional isomorphism, an organisational theory that explains the tendency of organisations in a given area or industry to become more similar over time.

Keywords::

• sport and international relations
• doping
• sport and politics
• sport and drugs
• sport and diplomacy

Notes

^1. An erudite discussion of the pervasiveness of performance enhancement in society can be found in Hoberman, Testosterone Dreams. On performance enhancement in sport more specifically, consult Dimeo, A History of Drug Use in Sport.

^2. The most comprehensive historical study of anti-doping policy to date is Hunt, Drug Games. For a more concise synopsis, see Todd and Todd, “Significant Events in the History of Drug Testing.” An insightful study of the history of the international sport system is Keys, Globalizing Sport.

^3. The organisation's founding principles are explained by its first Director in Huxley, UNESCO. UNESCO also commissioned a nearly 500-page organisational history published in 1995 (see Valderrama, A History of UNESCO). Although now becoming somewhat dated, Hoggart's, An Idea and Its Servants offers an insider's perspective of the organisation's operation. Academic histories include Dutt, UNESCO and a Just World Order and, more recently, Singh, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.

^4. UNESCO, “Constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.” November 16, 1945, http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID = 15244&URL_DO = DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION = 201.html (accessed June 7, 2011).

^5. Ibid.

^6. Ibid.

^7. See Bailey, Science in the Service of Physical Education and Sport.

^8. An international convention is very similar to a treaty or covenant (the terms are often used interchangeably) in terms of the binding force it exerts over signatories. Although definitional consensus is tenuous, a convention typically contains an enforcement mechanism, making it a stronger legal instrument than an international declaration.

^9. Final Report, Second International Conference of Ministers and Senior Officials Responsible for Physical Education and Sport (hereafter referred to as ‘MINEPS II’), ED/MD/87, Moscow, November 21–25, 1988, 63–82. This and similarly cited documents were retrieved from UNESCO's online archive, UNESDOC (http://unesdoc.unesco.org, accessed December 2011). Where possible, the document code is included in the citation.

^10. Ibid., Annex III, 4.

^11. Reference Document: The Development of Physical Education and Sport Since 1976, MINEPS II (ED.88/CONF.206/COL.6, Moscow, November 21–25, 1988), 52.

^12. Final Report, MINEPS II, 10.

^13. Ibid.

^14. Ibid., 30.

^15. Ibid., 10.

^16. Ibid., 43.

^17. Follow-up to MINEPS II: Moscow Declaration and Recommendations Concerning, in Particular, the Fight Against Doping, Protection of the Olympic Games and Co-operation Between UNESCO and the Olympic Movement, UNESCO General Conference (25 C/82, Paris, August 18, 1989), 6.

^18. Records of the General Conference: Resolutions, UNESCO (25 C/Resolutions, Paris, October 17–November 16, 1989), 89–90.

^19. Ibid., 90.

^20. Ibid.

^21. Annotated Provisional Agenda, Intergovernmental Committee for Physical Education and Sport (hereafter referred to as ‘CIGEPS’), Annex 2 (ED.90/CONF.203/3, Paris, August 23, 1990).

^22. Ibid., 2.

^23. Ibid.

^24. Final Report, CIGEPS (SHS/MD/1, Ottawa, October 22–26, 1990), 24–5.

^25. Ibid., 27.

^26. Records of the General Conference: Resolutions, UNESCO (26 C/Resolutions, Paris, October 15–November 7, 1991), 32.

^27. The Dubin Report resulted from a study conducted by the Canadian government in response to Ben Johnson's positive drug test following his victory in the 100 meters at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Released in 1990, the report criticised Canadian anti-doping policies and procedures and influenced significant reform. See, on the Dubin Report, MacAloon, “Steroids and the State.”

^28. Study on the Technical and Legal Aspects of the Desirability of Developing a New International Instrument to Combat Doping in Sport, Covering Education, Prevention, Co-operation and Information, UNESCO (27 C/43, Paris, July 30, 1993).

^29. Ibid., 6.

^30. Ibid.

^31. Records of the General Conference: Resolutions, UNESCO (27 C/Resolutions, Paris, October 25–November 16, 1993), 71.

^32. Ibid.

^33. Ibid., 70.

^34. “Lausanne Declaration,” Olympic Review, February–March 1999, 17–18.

^35. Decisions Adopted by the Executive Board at its 156th Session, UNESCO (156 EX/Decision, Paris, June 29, 1999), 9. This and similarly cited documents were retrieved from UNESCO's online archive, UNESDOC (http://unesdoc.unesco.org). When possible, the document code is included in the citation.

^36. Final Report, Annex 4, Third International Conference of Ministers and Senior Officials Responsible for Physical Education and Sport (ED.99/CONF.209/CLD.11, Punta del Este, Uruguay, November 30–December 3, 1999), 1–2.

^37. Final Report, MINEPS III, 9.

^38. Ibid.

^39. Ibid., Annex 6, 4.

^40. Ibid., Annex 5.

^41. Annotated Agenda, Round Table of Ministers of Physical Education and Sport (ED.2003/CONF.802/1, Paris, January 9–10, 2003), 3.

^42. See Hunt, Drug Games, 116–20, for an overview of these developments.

^43. Cape Town Declaration on Anti-Doping in Sport (Cape Town, South Africa, May 30–31, 2001), http://www.wada-ama.org/rtecontent/document/capetowndeclaration.pdf

^44.Mellgren, “International Conference Seeks to Combat Drugs.”

^45. Ibid.

^46. Working document, Round Table of Ministers of Physical Education and Sport (ED.2003/CONF.802/2, Paris, January 9–10, 2003).

^47. Follow-up to the Round Table of Ministers and Senior Officials Responsible for Physical Education and Sport: Preliminary Study of the Technical and Legal Aspects of an International Anti-Doping Convention in Sport (32 C/50, Paris, July 18, 2003), 1.

^48. Follow-up to the Round Table of Ministers and Senior Officials Responsible for Physical Education and Sport (166 EX/42, Paris, March 21, 2003), 3–4.

^49. Ibid.

^50. Ibid.

^51. Ibid.

^52. Decisions Adopted by the Executive Board at its 166th Session, UNESCO (166 EX/Decisions, Paris, April 4–16, 2003), 6.

^53. Summary Records, Executive Board, UNESCO (166 EX/SR.1-11, Paris, April 4–16, 2003), 22.

^54. Records of the General Conference: Resolutions, UNESCO (32 C/Resolutions, Paris, September 29–October 17, 2003), 22–3.

^55. Ibid.

^56. Records of the General Conference: Resolutions, UNESCO (33 C/Resolutions, Paris, October 3–21, 2005), 29–48.

^57. This concept has been applied to contemporary sport cases as well. See, for example, Phelps and Kent, “Isomorphism and Choice in the Creation and Development.”

^58.DiMaggio and Powell, “The Iron Cage Revisited.” The ideas in this essay are given a more thorough and expanded treatment in Powell and DiMaggio, The New Institutionalism.

^59.Hawley, “Human Ecology.”

^60.Weber, The Protestant Ethic.

^61.DiMaggio and Powell, “The Iron Cage Revisited,” 149.

^62. Ibid., 148.

^63. Ibid.

^64. For an argument that unified anti-doping regulation was the result of favourable conditions in the policy environment, see Houlihan, “Harmonising Anti-Doping Policy.” In fact, all essays in the collection in which this work was published are important contributions to the study of anti-doping policy. The collection is Hoberman and Möller, Doping and Public Policy.

^65.DiMaggio and Powell, “The Iron Cage Revisited,” 151–2.

^66. Ibid., 151.

^67. Ibid., 152.

^68. Harris, Alan. “WADA Chief: ‘We Will Never Win War Against Doping’,” http://www.innsbruck2012.com/en/newsroom/wada_chief-_we_will_never_win_war_against_doping (accessed June 7, 2013).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Scott R. Jedlicka

Scott R. Jedlicka is a doctoral candidate in sport management at the University of Texas at Austin. His research specialties pertain to sport and international relations and international sport governance.

Thomas M. Hunt

Thomas M. Hunt is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education at the University of Texas at Austin, where he also holds an appointment as Assistant Director for Academic Affairs at the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports.