“We are extremely pleased that HRH Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein accepted to chair this new IOC Advisory Committee on Human Rights.

The IOC will greatly benefit from his expertise and experience. I would like to thank him for taking over this very important position”, IOC President Thomas Bach said in Tokyo.

“Promoting humanistic values in sport has been a core feature of the IOC since its beginning. Our mission, to put sport at the service of humanity, goes hand-in-hand with human rights, which is part of our DNA.”

The Advisory Committee will consist of six to nine members, with sport and human rights expertise. The composition of the full Committee will be announced in March 2019.

The new Committee will be a key instrument to help the IOC meet its human rights responsibilities and addressing the organization’s salient human rights risks through a comprehensive strategic approach and policy.

This is related to the IOC’s spheres of work, including its operations and in the staging of the Olympic and the Youth Olympic Games. It will report to the IOC Executive Board and the IOC President.

While regular public reporting is not expected, it is not to be excluded either.

The decision of setting up the Advisory Committee is another direct result of Olympic Agenda 2020. It also follows the inclusion of human rights standards into the “Operational Requirements” of the Host City Contract for the Olympic Games 2024 and beyond.

They explicitly require Organising Committees to comply with applicable local, regional and national laws as well as international agreements and protocols “with regards to planning, construction, protection of the environment, health and safety, labour and anti-corruption laws” on “development projects and other projects necessary for the organisation of the Games”.

The International Olympic Committee is a not-for-profit independent international organisation made up of volunteers, which is committed to building a better world through sport. It redistributes more than 90 per cent of its income to the wider sporting movement, which means that every day the equivalent of 3.4 million US dollars goes to help athletes and sports organisations at all levels around the world.