How to monitor and report discrimination in sport?‌

You have been exposed to some examples of discrimination in sport in the previous stops and hopefully inspired to take bold action.

We will now look in more detail at how to develop a monitoring system for racism in sport.

The ultimate goal will be to provide you with some guidelines and tools to build a monitoring system for your context, starting from your monitoring protocol. Let's get started!

What needs to be done?

It is important to bear in mind that monitoring cannot be seen as a stand-alone activity; on the contrary, it must be accompanied by a range of activities to ensure that its purpose is achieved.

Here are some relevant sequential steps to consider when developing a discrimination monitoring system - we call them the monitoring cycle.

In the case of monitoring discrimination (e.g. ethnic-racial) bridging different types of data is key. It is necessary to combine a qualitative and quantitative analysis of discrimination reports with data collection, processing and dissemination.

How and where to effectively report discrimination incidents

In this stop we will take you through a gamified experience to help you understand what steps to take AND what elements to monitor when you want to report a racist incident. In fact, monitoring and reporting are closely linked, the elements to monitor are the ones you need to report.

Remember that an effective monitoring system should encourage discriminated people to report, even anonymously, in a safe way.

Let’s consider now the data useful to monitor and to report. A synthetic list could be the following:

  • the type of discriminatory act experienced or witnessed (discrimination, verbal violence, physical violence or damage to property or assets);
  • the discrimination factor (somatic traits, national or “ethnic” origins, religious affiliation and beliefs, status of ability, gender, sexual orientation);
  • the actor of discrimination;
  • the geographical area where it takes place and the types of reactions of the victim (report to the competent authorities, report though public statement, no report);
  • then, the data to be considered strictly related to the sports world: the involved sport discipline and level and eventual responses and/or sanctions taken.

Let’s test your understanding of a situation and some key concepts. Try and identify these factors in a real-life example.

FOLLOW-THROUGH EXERCISE: Think about what you would have done in this case. Would you have reported it? To whom?

RECOMMENDED ACTIONABLE RESOURCES TO GO FURTHER:

Finally, before reporting, it is important to consider where to report a particular case based on the type of discriminatory act (go back to Stop 1 if you need to refresh your memory about the different types of discrimination), the context and any other data you may have.

Where to effectively report discrimination incidents?

When it comes to effectively reporting discrimination incidents, experts advise you to ask yourself the following key questions:

  • What kind of incident was it?
  • Is it something you should report to a sports institution, to the police, or a national institution of your country?
  • Think about the possible solutions or outcomes you would like to see from reporting the incident and decide where to report it.

The MONITORA partners strongly suggest you look at and get in touch with the following resources and help centres:

Name of the organisation Country Action Level (International / European / Regional / Local) Type of support provided Website link
Unar-National Anti-Racial Discrimination Office Italy National Information, guidance and support. The only national body to whom you can report discrimination. It has also developed a special Observatory on discrimination in sport. https://unar.it/portale/web/unar-en
Oscad-Observatory for security against discriminatory acts Italy National Support to victims of discrimination offences (hate crimes) https://www.interno.gov.it/it/ministero/osservatori-commissioni-e-centri-coordinamento/osservatorio-sicurezza-contro-atti-discriminatori-oscad
Lunaria antidiscrimination service Italy Local, regional Legal https://www.cronachediordinariorazzismo.org/lunarias-anti-racism-service/
Non-Discrimination Ombudsman Finland National Legal https://www.yhdenvertaisuusvaltuutettu.fi/en/instructions-for-contacting-the-ombudsman
UNIA Belgium National Inform and raise awareness. Handle reports from a legal standpoint. https://www.signalement.unia.be/fr/signale-le
Come Together Belgium National (Football specifically Inform and raise awareness and equip all people around the world of football to combat discrimination.
A reporting point is available on their website to complain to the legal structure of the Belgian Football Union. 		https://footbel-prod2018.belgianfootball.be/fr/cometogether
Kick it Out United-Kingdom National (Football specifically) Inform and raise awareness and equip all people around the world of football to combat discrimination.
Report discrimination to them and Kick it Out will get the right people involved and see the whole process through with you. 		https://www.kickitout.org/report

But you probably also want to map your list or resources according to your context.

Please, if you have not already done so, take a few minutes to set up your database - or the Anti Racist nodes as mentioned above.

Get ready for action - Walking through the Monitora Protocol

Congratulations on reaching this level of the course. We believe that you are now ready and well equipped to create your own MONITORA protocol for monitoring racism in sport.

  • Let us first tell you a little more about the MONITORA protocol.
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