Updated:
Keep
One of the few matters in which an international institution obliges to modify organic laws in Spain is doping. It happens from time to time with the anti-doping law in force in our country since 2007, just after the biggest scandal known in Iberian sport, the Puerto operation. The new Organic Law that finalizes its processing these days in the Senate adapts to the regulations imposed by the World Anti-Doping Code 2021 of the World Agency (WADA) and the international rules that accompany it. In this mandatory variation, a new model emerges to judge the positives or doping records. An Anti-Doping Sanction Committee of seven people, who will be responsible for punishing or not the athletes who cheat.
To date, the last decision on the positives in Spain corresponded to the Spanish Agency for the Protection of Health in Sport, the politically correct name for the Anti-Doping Agency, which will change its name again when the new law enters into force and It will be called the State Agency Spanish Commission for the Fight Against Doping in Sport by losing the competences in health and sports prevention.
The new Anti-Doping Sanction Committee will have full independence, according to the law, and will not be able to receive orders or instructions from any other body or authority, whether from the Agency or from outside. «It will be a process external to the agency, cleaner, more transparent and surely better. I think the creation of this committee is phenomenal, even if it means a loss of powers for the agency, but it is not a question of whether we have more or less power on these issues. With the seven members, the athlete will be treated in the most transparent way possible ”, the director of the Anti-Doping Agency, José Luis Terreros, analyzes for ABC.
At the proposal of the director
The new commission will be made up of seven members, who will be appointed at the proposal of Terreros. Of these, four will have to be chosen from among prestigious jurists in the field of sports law and the other three will come from the scientific, medical or sports fields. It is understood that they must have specific knowledge of doping and a professional background. The Agency manages an extensive list of fourteen or fifteen names, which includes former athletes who have obviously never had a doping stain. The law requires parity, a balance between men and women in the appointment of positions.
“There are highly qualified and very good professionals in Spain to carry out this function”, explains the director of the Agency.
People who have been, during the previous two years, members of the governing, representative or complementary bodies of sports federations, professional leagues or sports clubs may not be chosen. Nor who has advised these organizations or athletes, or who has provided professional services to athletes. The aim is to avoid any possible conflict of interest.
The committee’s judging experts will be nominated for a period of four years and they can only be re-elected for the same period for a total of eight years.
What will happen in 2022 is that the Anti-Doping Agency will continue to decide how and to whom controls are carried out in Spain, it will organize, as up to now, the entire process related to analyzes, control agents, follow-up of suspects in surprise controls and collaboration with security forces investigating issues related to sports fraud and drug trafficking. If a positive appears in the laboratories, the Agency will initiate the file, request data from the defendant and others, but it will be The Anti-Doping Sanctioning Committee is the only competent body to resolve sanctioning proceedings for doping offenses provided for by law. All the work of the Agency will pass to this committee for the final auction, the punishment or not and the severity of the same to the athletes who circulate through the shortcuts.
Decisions and resources
The decisions adopted by the Sanctioning Committee may be appealed in an administrative instance by the different natural or legal persons involved in the cases: the affected athlete, the opposing party or those harmed by the decision, the corresponding international federation, the director of the Anti-Doping Agency. , the World Anti-Doping Agency, the International Olympic Committee or the Paralympic Committee when the resolution affects the Olympic Games or the Paralympic Games.
«This is the protocol requested by the World Anti-Doping Agency and one of the requirements in the reformulation of the organic law. Some countries have started it a long time ago and others are promoting it now, ”says José Luis Terreros.
And as it happens until now, the athletes guilty of the fraud will be protected by the current data protection law. The personnel who perform doping control functions are obliged to keep confidentiality and secrecy regarding their professional practice. The law requires the use of personal data, including those derived from the analysis of samples, for the purposes for which they were collected. They can also be used for scientific studies, as long as the identity of the person is not revealed.
The data related to doping controls can only be transferred, according to the law, to public or private international organizations of which Spain is a part and that participate in the fight against doping in the sports field.
This is a tricky question, the transfer of data for statistical or scientific research purposes It can only be done when the transfer is proportional to the objective pursued, respects the right to protection and the interests and fundamental rights of the interested party are sufficiently protected.
See them
comments
.
-lache-Messinho.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1){kind=icon}
