Does International Law Have a Place at Eurovision? (In 2 minutes)
By Yusra Suedi (PhD, Assistant Professor of International Law at University of Manchester)
A New York Times investigation just revealed that Israel spent at least $1 million on government-funded Eurovision campaigns between 2018-2025, with coordinated voting drives that likely influenced results.
The findings shed new light on this weekend’s Eurovision Song Contest, where Bulgaria won for the first time and Israel finished second.
The contest was overshadowed by controversy over Israel's participation despite the war in Gaza, which led to Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Iceland boycotting.
The revelations raise bigger questions:
Does international law have a place at Eurovision?
No:
An EBU rep just said, “We’re not the United Nations”.
The contest is run by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), a Swiss-based association of broadcasting organisations.
It is nothing like the UN, the EU or NATO, which are actual international organisations dealing with international law-related issues, created by countries through agreements.
So, they’ll argue, Eurovision simply isn’t a place where questions about who’s breaking which international law really belong.
Yes:
Others will argue that in reality, Eurovision is a cultural stage for countries.
They perform under their flags, national broadcasters select national entries and governments celebrate victories (or fume over losses).
In that sense, Eurovision becomes one of the many informal channels through which countries act, react and relate to each other. It could be seen as a space for soft diplomacy.
Once you see it that way, it makes perfect sense that the contest has become a site where international law debates spill over – even though EBU says it’s apolitical.
History backs this up: The EBU itself banned Russia from participating in Eurovision 2022 following its invasion of Ukraine, to avoid “bringing the competition into disrepute” (though apparently said recently it might lift the ban.)
Do countries have a legal duty to boycott?
Many will say there’s a moral duty to stand up to bad behaviour. But is there a legal duty… and one that other European countries might have to follow in the years to come?
No:
International law has something called the duty of non-recognition – basically, a rule that says countries must not treat certain serious violations of international law as normal or legitimate (here, at Article 41(2)).
In this situation, that would normally translate into things like not giving Israel any weapons or not recognizing the way Israel divides Gazan territory.
It wouldn’t require banning Israel from Eurovision, since the contest isn’t governed by international law and a boycott wouldn’t directly change the situation on the ground.
So there is no legal requirement for any other European country to follow the lead of Ireland and its allies.
Yes:
It doesn’t really matter where or how non-recognition should be expressed.
Countries have applied their duty of non-recognition in cultural arenas before.
For example: In response to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan, more than 60 countries (led by the USA) refused to send athletes to the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
Another example is the 1986 boycott of the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh by several African, Asian, and Caribbean countries, protesting the UK government’s refusal to sanction apartheid South Africa.
So, applying non-recognition logic to high-profile cultural normalisation is not unthinkable.
Allowing a country to appear, under its flag, on a high-visibility international stage can be seen as a form of recognising its ordinary standing in the world.
As all countries have a duty of non-recognition, European countries would have to uphold that in this context, too (by, for example, boycotting).
Whatever position you take, one thing is clear:
International law seeps into everyday culture and isn’t limited to hallways of the UN in Geneva or New York… It shows up in unexpected places: sequins, ballads, and televotes.
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