Sport’s potential in promoting human rights: tennis for gender equality and women’s empowerment

Over the last few decades, sport has grown in its importance. Sport has gained much popularity due to its professionalisation, globalisation, freedom of movement, technological progress, media, and marketing. Major sports events, athletes or sports brands are recognised by people all over the world. Sport is no longer just a form of entertainment and competition, but an important and rapidly developing part of the global economy. Recognising the scale and importance of the contemporary sports’ market, sport has started to be used as an instrument to build states’ soft power and to achieve non-sports objectives. This has led to the development of a new concept, which is sports diplomacy. Following the spirit and the main values of Olympism, it seems like sport can also be used to promote human rights. As it is driven by the principles of fair play, respect and tolerance, sport is believed to be a right instrument to advocate for human rights. Nevertheless, sport’s environment is very specific and it is still full of stereotypes that undermine the image and position of the woman. Not only it results in low popularity of female sports categories, less financial support, unequal pay between men and women, depreciation of women's sports successes, but also provokes discriminatory practices. Tennis, however, is considered as one of the most equal sports disciplines. The aim of this thesis is to discuss the potential of sport in promoting human rights, with a particular look on tennis and its contribution to gender equality and women’s empowerment.