21 Apr DOPING IN SPORTS
Doping; According to the general acceptance, an athlete uses performance-enhancing active substances voluntarily or non-willfully in order to achieve physiological or psychological superiority in competitions.
Doping will not only be assessed as sporting. Doping has a sporting, moral, ethical dimension, as well as a legal basis.
Studies related to the fight against doping are being conducted in the world and in our country, and regulatory agencies are being created. Although there is no legal regulation on the fight against doping in Turkey, the Turkish Anti-Doping Directive of January 1, 2015, which regulates the provisions and results in question, is the basic and binding regulation on doping in sports law. The applications related to the said Instruction are carried out by the Turkish Anti-Doping Commission. Legislation in all countries has been harmonized with the rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency, and efforts have been made to create a uniform practice around the world.
Sanctions related to doping are directly related to legal acts and general principles of law. However, as is thought, the doping issue is paralleled by the principles of private law rather than the principles of criminal law. Judging by the CAS (International Court of Arbitration for Sport) assessments, these sanctions are more related to civil law rules than criminal law. In addition, another reason why sanctions related to doping cannot be reconciled with criminal law is that these sanctions are more disciplinary rules than criminal sanctions. Therefore, the principles developing within the state’s sanctions system will not find a field of application. Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights entitled the right to a fair trial. In this regard, it is accepted that the article will not be applied in the fight against doping.
On the other hand, the issues related to the fight against doping can only be regulated by instruction, and the current regulations cannot be expanded and interpreted. Originally, in this regard, the parallel principle with the principle of legality in crime and punishment was also adopted. In contrast to the usual system of anti-doping proceedings, proceedings are conducted not through the courts, but through the disciplinary boards of the federation to which the athlete is affiliated. The decisions made by the disciplinary boards of the relevant federation are binding and cannot be overturned or eliminated by any court other than the Arbitration Board or the International Arbitration Board unless there are any judicial and legal errors.
There are also principles and rules that dominate the proceedings in the field of combating doping. The most important rule in this regard is related to which institution and/or person has the burden of proof. According to the Instruction, the burden of proof of doping is on the Anti-Doping Commission. The Commission must provide proof that doping has been used, which can only be sanctioned in this case.
As mentioned, the proceedings related to doping are conducted by the disciplinary boards within the federations. As a continuation of this, the disciplinary board will appeal against the decision made by the disciplinary board, and the appeal will again be made to the disciplinary board, not to the court. In other words, the appeal, which can be likened to the ways of the law, is still within the board.
If there is a doping dispute within the meaning of international competitions, the appeal will only be made to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport. As instructed by the World Anti-Doping Agency, it is the athlete’s own responsibility to enter the athlete’s body of an active substance that may lead to a doping rule violation. For this reason, a perfect state of responsibility has been accepted for doping rule violations. If a doping rule violation is detected and proven, the investments may be applied to athletes individually, as well as to sports teams. If a doping rule violation is detected, it has consequences such as deprivation of rights penalties, cancellation of the degrees obtained, cancellation of the competition in question, return of the awards won, financial sanctions and termination of financial assistance received from the state.
There are also many exceptions to doping rule violations. The exception is also the use for therapeutic purposes. However, only therapeutic use cannot be considered as an exception to the sanction. Therapeutic use should bear certain considerations.
There is a risk that the athlete may have serious health problems if he does not use a prohibited substance or method
The fact that the substance used for the purpose of treatment will not seriously improve the athlete’s performance
There should be no alternative treatment method to the prohibited substance or method.
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