ABSTRACT
Respecting human rights is not an option for sport authorities, it is an obligation that derives from the responsibilities of states under the rule of law. For decades, the sporting world has been largely autonomous and self-regulating, but that era is coming to an end. Sport also remains one of the rare domains – if not the only one – that has been impermeable to the legal obligations to promote and protect child rights. The Convention on the Rights of the Child could help to reduce the number of young athletes at risk of human rights violations, even though, as yet, the use of the human rights approach to guarantee the rights of all athletes and achieve justice in the sporting world has been the object of very little research.
