Lausanne, 7 December 2015 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) is preparing to open a temporary office on the site of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in order to resolve legal disputes which may arise during the games. This special tribunal, called the CAS ad hoc Division, has operated at each edition of the Summer and Winter Olympic games since 1996, as well as at other major sporting events such as the Commonwealth Games, the UEFA European Football Championships, the AFC Asian Cup, the FIFA World Cup and the Asian Games.
The CAS ad hoc Division will provide participants in the Rio 2016 Games with free access to justice rendered within a timeframe consistent with the competition schedule. The tribunal for the Rio 2016 Games will be presided over by Mr Michael Lenard (USA), with Justice Ellen Gracie Northfleet (Brazil) serving as co-President, and composed of the following arbitrators:
- The Hon. Justice Annabelle Bennett AO, Australia
- Ms Andrea Carska-Sheppard, Canada/Slovakia
- Justice Catherine Davani, Papua New Guinea
- Ms Margarita Echeverria, Costa Rica
- Prof. Dr. Ulrich Haas, Germany
- Mr Mark Hovell, United Kingdom
- Mr Francisco Mussnich, Brazil
- Mr Jinwon Park, Korea
- Mr José Juan Pinto, Spain
- Dr Mohamed Abdel Raouf, Egypt
- Ms Carol Roberts, Canada
- Ms Rabab Yasseen, Iraq/Switzerland
The Presidents and arbitrators have been selected by the International Council of Arbitration for Sport (ICAS), an independent body, under the aegis of which the CAS operates. The office in Rio will be headed by the CAS Secretary General, Mr Matthieu Reeb.
In selecting the arbitrators for the Rio 2016 Games ad hoc division, the ICAS ensured that all regions of the world have been considered, and that the selection of arbitrators is representative of the athletes taking part in the Rio 2016 Games. The ICAS notes that 46% of the athletes will be female (a figure which is expected to increase to 50% in Tokyo 2020), and accordingly, it has, for the first time taken the deliberate decision to recognize gender equality among the arbitrators appointed to comprise the Rio 2016 Games ad hoc division. The selected arbitrators are all either lawyers, judges or professors specialized in sports law and arbitration who are independent of the parties who appear before the tribunal, and apply a procedure (set out in the Arbitration Rules for the Olympic Games) that complies with fundamental principles of procedural fairness and due process.
The location of the CAS office in Rio, together with the dates and times of its operations will be communicated in a separate release prior to the Games. In the meantime, any questions concerning the CAS ad hoc division for the Rio 2016 Games may be addressed to the Secretary General via the following email address: [email protected].
Swimming news courtesy of CAS.
