On July 11, 2025, just days before the FIFA Club World Cup final in New York, Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute, in cooperation with the Montreal Institute for Global Security (MIGS), hosted a landmark panel titled “Global Sports, Human Rights Violations and Available Remedies under International Law: The Case of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).”
The event brought together legal experts, journalists, and human rights defenders to explore how authoritarian regimes – particularly the UAE – use global sports to sanitize their international image while committing serious human rights violations at home and abroad.
Moderated by journalist Thymoté Pinon of L’Équipe and France Football (Paris), the discussion featured powerful testimony from victims of arbitrary detention and torture, legal critiques of the UAE’s repressive legislation, and a wider examination of the role international sports and business play in enabling “sportswashing.”
The Speakers and Panelists included:
- Dr. Christine A. Ryan, Director, Equality & Justice Project, Human Rights Institute, Columbia Law School
- Professor Sophia Murashkovsky Romma, Chair of the New York City Bar Association (NYCBA) UN Committee
- Marian Da Silva, Esq., Legal Fellow at “TrialWatch”, Clooney Foundation for Justice & Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute (Human Rights Clinic)
- Hamad al-Shamsi (UAE), Human Rights Defender in Exile; Executive Director of the Emirates Detainees Advocacy Center
- Dr. Ahmed Al-Nuaimi (UAE), Human Rights Defender in Exile; brother of one of the 43 dissidents sentenced to life-imprisonment on July 10, 2024, in Abu Dhabi
- Dr. Matthew Hedges (UK), PhD in Security Studies & Authoritarianism, victim of detention & torture
- Joey Shea, Researcher, Middle East & North Africa Division, Human Rights Watch – online
- Dr. David Donat Cattin (Italy), Adjunct Associate Professor (Int. Law), New York University Center for Global Affairs; Senior Fellow, Montreal Institute for Global Security
- Ruth Delbaere (Belgium), Legal Campaigns Director, Avaaz
MIGS played a key role in co-organizing the event and was represented on the panel by Dr. David Donat Cattin, Senior Fellow at MIGS and Adjunct Professor of International Law at NYU. Dr. Donat Cattin emphasized the urgent need to apply international legal principles to both state and private actors involved in global sports and called for stronger enforcement mechanisms beyond traditional UN frameworks.
The event was co-sponsored by MIGS, NYU’s Center for Global Affairs, the NYC Bar Association, AVAAZ.org, and student associations from Columbia and NYU.
To watch a full recording of the event, please click here.