A/HRC/30/50 values. Critical scholars argue that “athletes who are co-opted by the ʻeducational outreachʼ branch of the Olympic industry as role models, risk entrenching sexism, racism, and other discriminatory systems that they may be hoping to challenge”.8 26. Sport can combat social barriers, promote communication about gender and other forms of discrimination and contribute to bringing men and women closer together to enhance social cohesion. 27. It is noteworthy that, in certain instances, the adoption of protocols within sport has contributed to promoting respect and thus combating discrimination, for instance, handshakes between players. In addition, banners in athletic fields and international athletic conferences on anti-discrimination, together with laws prohibiting and providing penalties for such acts, contribute to raising awareness of and combating all forms of discrimination. E. Role of different types of sporting events 28. For the purpose of the present study, it is important to identify synergies and complementarities between sport and human rights that would pinpoint the relations between them, so as to promote the values of diversity, tolerance and fairness and to combat all forms of discrimination. It is also important to identify the obstacles to promoting human rights, including any infringements, which may occur in the context of sporting events. 29. Sporting events can help promote awareness and understanding of human rights principles through the interactions between people of different backgrounds and cultures. To strengthen this aspect, local, national and regional sporting events could include special targeted competitions for ethnic sport strands designed to demonstrate different ethnic traditions, practices and customs. 30. Sport and mega sporting events, including the Olympics, bring people closer together and make them familiar with each other. The shared purpose emerging from sport would eventually lead to decreasing prejudice and, given the high number of participants, this spirit would spread further towards the creation of an environment conducive to the promotion of human rights. 31. The following categories of sporting events can be distinguished: local, national, regional, continental, international and global, as well as special targeted programmes. The categorization is functional and depends on the commitments and objectives of the organizers, who decide upon the concrete requirements for each category. Hence, it is important that stakeholders, and in particular organizers of mass sporting events, use and leverage such events to promote and support sport for development and peace initiatives,9 including to support the inclusion of persons with disabilities and to promote nondiscrimination. 32. The staging of multiple-sport events in different regions of a country also results in the regions benefitting from the construction of related infrastructure, such as sporting venues, hotels and access roads, the development of know-how, expertise and the tourism industry and an overall positive impact on the economy. However, alongside these opportunities for economic and social development, sporting events also carry risks, including of the local population being displaced, evicted, exploited or killed. 8 9 8 See Helen Jefferson Lenskyj, Olympic industry resistance: challenging Olympic power and propaganda (State University of New York, Albany, 2008), p. 77. See General Assembly resolution 67/17.