National report 2010 of Netherlands on National Anti-Doping Policies

Doping in sport is nothing new, but it has grown, expanded geographically and become more visible in recent years. It is a true scourge for many competitive sports and jeopardises the health of millions of young athletes throughout the world.
Since the 1960s, the Council of Europe has realized the extent of this problem and decided to fight it. The Anti-Doping Convention, opened for signature on November 16, 1989 in Strasbourg and entering into force on March 1, 1990, demonstrates this commitment. It expresses the Contracting Parties’ political will to fight against doping in sport in an active and coordinated manner.
The main objective of the Convention is to promote the harmonization, at national and international levels, of the measures to be taken against doping.
The Convention does not claim to create a uniform model of anti-doping, but sets a certain number of common standards and regulations requiring that the Parties adopt legislative, financial, technical, educational and other measures. Its spirit derives from the political desire to help safeguard the ethics of sport and to preserve the integrity of clean sport.
By joining the principles and objectives of the Convention, the contracting Parties undertake, in their respective constitutional provisions, to set up a national anti-doping policy to:
– create a national coordinating body;
– reduce the trafficking of doping substances and the use of banned doping agents;
– reinforce doping controls and improve detection techniques;
– support education and information programs;
– guarantee the efficiency of sanctions taken against offenders;
– collaborate with national and international sports organisations;
– and use accredited anti-doping laboratories.
A monitoring system was created under the Convention and the Monitoring Group of the Anti-Doping Convention set up under Article 10 of the Convention is the body responsible for monitoring the application of the Convention. Parties to the Convention are under the obligation to provide the Council of Europe with information on legislative and other measures taken for the purpose of complying with the terms of the Convention, in accordance with Article 9. In order to facilitate this process, a questionnaire was prepared, requesting national reports from the Parties on the implementation of the Convention.
This report, reflecting the data of Netherlands for the year 2010, has been compiled for the purpose of monitoring of the convention by its Committee and is published for transparency. Comments may be sent to the secretariat of the Council of Europe, Sport department (sport@coe.int).