The adventures of Formula 1 in Bahrain have taught us to be very careful of human rights organisations and the credibility of their reports. Sport is sport and it is best to avoid putting a sport into a position where it becomes a political issue. One can argue that giving Russian President Vladimir Putin special privileges at the Grand Prix in Sochi was not perhaps the best way to give F1 a better image. It is clear that the creed in F1 circles is dictated by money, but it is also true that if human rights is brought up, there is scarcely a nation on earth which does not have someone somewhere arguing that the country abuses human rights. There are certainly plenty of claims about the ruling family of Azerbaijan, but this seems to have made no great impression on the Formula One group, which now has a policy that commits it to respect human rights.
“The Formula One Group is committed to respecting internationally recognised human rights in its operations globally,” the statement says. “Whilst respecting human rights in all of our activities, we focus our efforts in relation to those areas which are within our own direct influence. We do so by taking proportionate steps to understand and monitor through our due diligence processes the potential human rights impacts of our activities; identify and assess, by conducting due diligence where appropriate, any actual or potential adverse human rights impacts with which we may be involved either through our own activities or as a result of our business relationships, including but not limited to our suppliers and promoters; consider practical responses to any issues raised as a result of our due diligence, within the relevant context; engage in meaningful consultation with relevant stakeholders in relation to any issues raised as a result of our due diligence, where appropriate; and respect the human rights of our employees, in particular the prohibitions against forced and child labour, the freedom to associate and organise, the right to engage in collective bargaining, and the elimination of discrimination in employment and occupation.”
In other words, F1 commits itself to doing “due diligence” and deciding whether human rights are a problem. Hmmm…
The Sports for Rights campaign, a self-styled “coalition of international organisations working together to draw attention to the unprecedented human rights crackdown taking place in Azerbaijan” held a media briefing and called on the sport “to improve Formula One’s image…rather than just profiting and helping some very corrupt people improve their image a bit.”
Rebecca Vincent, the coordinator of the campaign. said that campaigners want singers Pharrell Williams, Chris Brown and Enrique Iglesias to cancel performances scheduled for the race weekend.
It is claimed that Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev and his government silence critics in order to stay in power. Who does one believe?
Human Rights Watch says that “Azerbaijan’s government has escalated repression against its critics, marking a dramatic deterioration in an already poor rights record. In recent years , dozens of human rights defenders, political and civil activists, journalists, and bloggers have been arrested or imprisoned on politically motivated charges, prompting others to flee the country or go into hiding.”
Amnesty International ‘s Azerbaijan 2015/2016 report makes grim reading, claiming that “the crackdown on civil society and persecution of political dissent continued. Human rights organizations remained unable to resume their work. At least 18 prisoners of conscience remained in detention at the end of the year. Reprisals against independent journalists and activists persisted both in the country and abroad, while their family members also faced harassment and arrests. International human rights monitors were barred and expelled from the country. Reports of torture and other ill-treatment persisted.”
The Central Intelligence Agency keeps an eye on all these things are its observations are interesting.
“Corruption in the country is widespread,” it says, “and the government, which eliminated presidential term limits in a 2009 referendum, has been accused of authoritarianism.”
Critics will say that the Americans would say that, but generally I find the CIA assessments to be fairly sensible. The British Foreign Office warns only about muggings which occur “from time to time after dark in the centre of town around the western bars and clubs”. The French Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, on the other hand, warns travellers to leave their passports in a safe place and always keep copies, just in case. It also warns visitors to make sure that they watch credit card transactions to make sure that the card stays in full view all the time.
The best answer in all these matters is to go and see what it is like. Hopefully, President Aliyev will not turn up in the cool down room after the race.
joeblogsf1 
The question is how many unregulated pressure groups do have to allow for. Many spout self generate, un-substantiated claims against hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide. F1 has even been privilaged to be targeted by the best know liers of all, GreenPeace, at the Belgium GP !!
“Unsubstantiated claims” LOL.
That Greenpeace incident made for, in my opinion, one of the greatest moments in GP+ history when Joe dedicated the issue to Shell, if memory serves . . . .
Doesn’t ring a bell
I wouldn’t lump Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch, two extremely reputable and rigorous organisations, in with the hardly-known Sports for Rights campaign. Nor would I underestimate the effectiveness of the authorities in filtering what the F1 media sees on their visit to Baku – although I recognise that you, Joe, are far more of a critical observer and newshound than most. Sadly, I do not believe that your admirable commitment to seeing the reality for yourself reflects a similar open-mindedness on the part of FOM, CVC, or the FIA – their studied obliviousness is designed only to obscure the fact that they’re in it for the money and nothing else. And past form suggests that, if anything, not only Aliyev but most of the rest of his kleptocratic clan will be preening at the post-race festivities…
I don’t think I did lump them together, any more than I lumped the French and British govts together
Since we’re off to the (typically excellent) Canadian race this weekend, how often does Canada get fingered as a human rights abuser? I’m sure if you Google you can find an Innit not happy with something, but Canada’s pretty damn squeaky clean and decent.
Mmmm… I think Canada’s record is not so squeaky clean; particularly with regard to its treatment of indigenous and first nations people…
Google would be your friend and educator here: start off with “residential schools”…
‘Idealists of the world unite…you have nothing to lose but your total
blindness to a scale of proportion which, left to itself will find a way to
make excuses for the behaviour of regimes like North Korea.
To be sure, every fair and good country has some areas that it fails in.
But the difference between countries that are largely free, honest and admit they make mistakes, those that are not in thesame ball-park is that you can tell them about their failures and they will usually give you a hearing. Try
that little test in certain ‘Democratic Republic’s’ and you are quite likely to have a very unpleasant periodof ‘reajustment’ forced upon you..
There is certainly the perception that Inuit lives matter less.
First Nation women were disappearing on the “Highway of Tears” since 1969; the Royal Canadian Mounted Police got right on that…in 2005.
I too hope that Lewis has a clean weekend; and will watch with interest, what happens with Red Bull.
Canada is mentioned in the latest Human Rights Watch world report. All but four F1 host countries are in that report. That four that do not bother Human Rights Watch are Japan, Monaco, Austria and Belgium.
Reform has to begin at some point in time, especially when the eyes of the world are upon you, time will tell…
Bahrain is bad when it comes to human rights, and it seems Azerbaijan is worse. And of course Russia and China are major powers that refuse to even pretend to respect individual freedoms. And F1 performs in all of them. Is that a problem? Not necessarily. As Joe says, sport and politics are not a natural combination, and it takes a rare, monumental figure like Muhammad Ali to bring them together. But sport does not have to bend over backwards to flatter the tyrants, either. It can do business with them without being used for propaganda purposes. It can show a smidgen of integrity and independence while entertaining the world in places like Russia and Bahrain. The same goes for show business. A couple of years ago, a Pharell Williams song was used by Iranian teenagers in a youtube video that went viral, and some of them were arrested as a result (the girls were dancing and not wearing headscarves was one of the problems). If he wanted, Williams could acknowledge his power to effect positive change as well as to make money, performing at the GP but also supporting democratic values (by avoiding obsequious interviews with government shills for a start), and the F1 celebs, whether drivers or chief executives, could do the same.
Joe, I’m not sure what your point is other than you are an F1 fan. Where did you stand on the apartheid sanctions against South Africa, the Trafalgar Square protests, the sporting sanctions, artists refusing to perform in the country, etc.
I’m interested in your position on this subject, unless of course you were too young to remember. I prefer single standards, that is why I refuse to visit countries like China….
Apartheid was not sensible
Apartheid was an abomination and represented an example where sport and politics were inextricably linked.
In the area of the Caribbean where I grew up West Indies players opting to undertake rebel tours were banned for life.
Irrelevant to your post but do not know how to contact you otherwise. Just wondering if you read the book Spy Princess by Shrabani Basu ? It’s a gripping story but the reason I am contacting you is that during her very short and tragic spy career in Paris she was in contact with one or more of your Grand Prix saboteurs.
All the best
Jose
If you read my book you will know all about it…
I guess F-1 has ever, always respected human rights at its utmost meaning and has ever always forever sided with noble humanitarian causes. F-1 is the ultimate sport that has guaranteed throughout the years that, OH WAIT, are you telling me what about something in South Africa, races there and that thing called APARTHEID and they raced there regardless?? (sound of fading trumpet). Phoooom phoooommmm phommmm.
Yep
I am strongly afraid that once we start taking into account human rights of refugees, immigrants and minorities, then hardly any country could hold a race.
And yes, I see difference between Austria, Hungary and Russia, for that example.
To say nothing of the Aussie concentration camps on Nauru. It’s hard for Eastern countries not to see a double standard being applied when stuff like that goes on without any (international) controversy whatsoever being raised.
“Aussie concentration camps”
LOL
Russia has occupied Ukrainian territories, killed thousands of people and no one in F1 bats an eye. So who will care about corrupted government, come on.
The first videos of the lap driven in Baku show that most of the barriers are/were already in place. It seemed that the city was deserted apart from workers on the track. .
If the UK government tried closing off half of London for weeks they would not be left in peace. But in Baku I would guess that no one is allowed to complain or disappears rapidly if they do. The lap seemed to cover a large part of the city which looks rather nice with wide streets and space for three cars abreast for most of its length, and it had I think 20 turns. If you do watch the vid via the fanatic page, beware the clickjacking on exit of full screen via the bottom exit button and use the Youtube dropdown from the top instead. (it may be harmless but …..)
Most of non-western World (which actually is most of the World) and substantial number of western World population will argue that when it comes to human rights, one of the worst offenders of all is the US of A. Should F1 say ‘we don’t go to the US’ or pretend all is well and continue pushing into the market that can bring huge financial benefits? I think the main question here is where do you draw a line. I think some objectivity is needed, specially when we talk about such a global sport. I certainly agree with Jo the best answer is to go and see what it is like and in case of reporters like him, to report as they see it.
As tawdry as some elements the US are, it’s asinine to compare its governments behaviours, particularly towards its own citizens, to the behaviours of the Russian and Azerbaijani governments.
My personal concern is that such circuits, and their obvious political exploitation by dictators, will further scare sponsors, making the teams ever more dependant on FOM. This affects the privateers especially, since FOM has already excluded from the bonus payment scheme.
Baku looks like a lovely city, and may make for some great TV assuming nothing too bad happens at turn 10. It’ll do wonders for tourism there I’m sure. But it won’t help the likes of Sauber close any new sponsors.
I certainly won’t miss having to turn a blind eye to F1 and Bernie proclaiming how wonderful some of these countries with poor human rights records are. That and not having to justify the same to my friends is one of the positives of me being down with F1 once the UK paywall is errected.
I suppose the counter argument to this would be that by bringing a large event, sporting or otherwise, to a nation that has human rights issues has the effect of raising those issues to a wider audience.
I suspect that there where relatively few people talking about Azerbaijan human rights in the general population, but stick a Grand Prix there, and suddenly it becomes popular news.
Obviously, the ruling party can use it as propaganda, but it may also highlight the country’s issues.
I’m don’t regard myself as much as an expert in this regard, and my gut feeling is that racing in these areas are a bad idea, but I can see perhaps another side to it.
One persons terrorist is another persons freedom fighter. Mandela was roundly condemned for setting up Spear of the Nation. Whose is to judge who is a despotic regime and who is democratic nation?
Relatively simple – if the government changes its own constitution to be impossible to remove, imprisons or executes the opposition and controls the media – these are clues that you may just be slipping into despot territory. Whilst the USA/UK have a poor record on many misadventures whilst they retain a press that is free to criticise their governments without immediate assassination/arrest they are not on the same level as these regimes.
Personal view. It isn’t really a sport anymore. It is all about the money. To paraphrase Mrs Merton, ” so Bernie, what first attracted you to the multi Billionaire Baku Government?” I’m at best a casual follower of what Bernard has left of a series that used to be about Grand Prix racing, so Baku or Sochi or Patagonia, Botswana….eh? If it isn’t on a proper Grand Prix circuit in a country with some at least even tenuous relationship with the history of motor racing, then the chances of me looking or reading about it are around zilch. I shall look forward to GP+ which i have been buying for the first time this year, as Joe and his colleagues always have some interesting articles on when racing was about racing, and the drivers, not the z list celebs, were the stars of the circus. So, Baku? Not interested and unlikely to even know what happened. If enough people exercised that option, Bernie might just get us back to reality.
+1 Damian
F1 doing “due diligence” is almost as surprising as learning that FIFA had an “Ethics Committee”.
If only F1 made its prime marketing focus the comparative superiority of its ‘combustion units’ in terms of energy efficiency then the ‘human rights’ angle would be vastly outweighed by the benefits of world-wide promotion of a technology which could help to significantly reduce global greenhouse gasses –
Maybe.
Formula 1 has been at the beck and call of dubious leaders from the start.
F1 was in South Africa when Apartheid was at its worst in the minority Afrikaan ruled nation.
(Though have to add the latest leader in South Africa has been in the media regarding his tax free money laundering and his predatory sexual actions. So not exactly a great leader himself since the retirement and passing of N.Mandela).
F1 has been in the areas (still will be) where human rights are not worth the paper they are written on. Putin in Russia a platform to look normal while downing civilian aircraft and encroaching on Ukraine and Middle East where the exploitation of foreign workers from Asia is abhorrent and downright slave labour. and Azerbaijan no freedom of speech, banning of foreign journalists and the use of torture on political members of the opposition.
Tyrants Madman Monsters and Totalitarian regimes….Bernie and his favourite pals.
When Webber was concerned about driver safety and General safety of crews one old racing champion stated…
“Only a few deaths so the race should carry on” Jackie Stewart backing the Bahrain Royal family when the Saudi Forces joined in the demolition of the opposition party.
Shows a lot how F1 has brought prestige to the dictators of the globe.
Sad times indeed. One bonus of Bernie giving Sky all the rights only a few will get to see these mad men handing out trophies.
Speaking of Bahrain, have you seen the outrage developing over the involvement of one of the sheik’s sons who’s been accused of supporting torture in a professional bicycle racing team?
I don’t see what peoples’ problems with Azerbaijan or any other despotic locale on the F1 calendar. F1 is in the US, the “We Import Democracy” country, so what difference does it make?
I agree that all countries have human rights violations.In my country,Australia,the indigenous population has been treated badly going back to white settlement and the current off shore refugee camps are an abomination.
However there must be a line in the sand where sport and trade sanctions should be used as they are the only way to bring outside pressure.I am not sure exactly where this line is although it is certainly on this side of competing in apartheid South Africa.
Sports that make friends with “tyrants,madmen,monsters and totalitarian regimes” are probably doing themselves more reputation all and long term commercial damage than the short term commercial return.
Artists are a lot more willing to make a statement.Look at concert boycott of North Carolina over their vicious anti gay laws.
My call would be to take F1 out of Bahrain,Russia and Baku.Arbitrary line but that is mine.China on my watch list.
I think my line would be don’t race in any country where a minority oppress the majority. Easier said than done, I know.
Joe, thanks for thought provoking article.
That would be any country where rampant capitalism has a stranglehold –
So, no easy solution, expect business as usual.
It isn’t motor racing but cycling has wheels and Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa of Bahrain is trying to start a cycling team.
And being opposed on human rights grounds, claims being made that he was involved in torture during the human rights demonstrations that almost derailed the GP a few years ago.
Isn’t there a line somewhere? Must money trump all?