Banning Sports Teams

Jordan Carter has come out in favour of the Greens proposal to ban sports teams from visiting Zimbabwe. Jordan declares there is no issue of human rights involved in banning NZ sports bodies from being able to decide where to travel to and play.

I’m certainly glad Jordan isn’t Attorney-General with that view!

But the more interesting point which neither the Greens nor Jordan have touched on is who decides which countries have “despotism” and can be banned from sporting contact.

You see Jordan and the Greens have said that the UN is the source of authority for countries to take action such as sanctions, or other disciplinary action (up to war). They have spent years decrying Bush for not having UN backing.

Yet here they propose unilateral action against Zimbabwe, despite no UN sanction!

Now please do not think I am saying Mugabe is not a despot. He is. However I support the right of countries to decide this for themselves. Jordan and the Greens have maintained the UN is the font of authority, so the issue is consistency.