Jakarta, 31 March 2026
As it has been known, at the World Conference on Doping in Sport in Busan, South Korea, in December 2025, the WADA Foundation Board and Executive Committee approved the World Anti-Doping Code 2027 on December 5th, 2025. This updated code, which strengthens athletes’ rights and improves technical standards, will come into effect on January 1st, 2027. The 2027 Code focuses on strengthening the protection of athletes’ rights, particularly for young athletes, increasing the fairness and transparency of anti-doping procedures, and intensifying global collaboration. According to WADA, this approval process followed a multi-year, multi-stage review process, including consultations with more than 600 athletes and stakeholders, which generated over 5,000 comments to ensure the code’s effectiveness.
The 2027 Code relaxes the requirements for mitigating sanctions. It eliminates the requirement that assistance result in a formal prosecution and focuses instead on whether the athlete “discovers facts constituting” the violation. Additionally, a new provision allows for a reduction of up to 15% in ineligibility if an athlete provides valuable information that does not meet the high threshold of formal “Substantial Assistance.” Furthermore, the 2027 Code distinguishes between “willful” and “reckless” violations. Reckless violations (for example, failing to check a label) can result in different, and potentially more nuanced, sanctions than willful doping.
Equally important, the 2027 Code expands special treatment for Recreational Athletes and Protected Persons (minors), extending certain leniencies regarding the burden of proof to 16-17-year-olds who are not officially considered “Protected Persons.” Meanwhile, mandatory public disclosure of violations was removed for recreational athletes, protected persons, and minors, with public disclosure only permitted if considering the best interests of the individual. Because of the importance of the 2027 Code to be immediately known to national stakeholders in the field of sports in Indonesia, then after WADA approved it on December 5th, 2025, then the 2027 Code was re-examined / edited by WADA, so that it was finally published again by WADA on February 13th, 2026. Since then, IADO has carried out a direct and as comprehensive translation as possible into Indonesian, whose aim is to immediately be easily readable in the Indonesian version.
Although the World Anti-Doping Code 2027 will only be effective on January 1st, 2027, the IADO deems it necessary to immediately translate it into Indonesian and also socialize it to all national stakeholders in the sports sector in Indonesia, whose aim is to ensure that they are aware of the changes to the 2027 Code as early as possible. As happened in early 2022 when NADO Indonesia was still sanctioned by WADA, a translated version in Indonesian was also created (at the beginning of 2022, it was a translation of the 2021 Code which actually came into effect on January 1st, 2021, but it turned out that by the end of 2021 when NADO Indonesia was sanctioned by WADA there was still no Indonesian version). The IADO strongly hopes that athletes and especially their support teams will begin to learn about the changes to the new WADA regulations, so that undesirable things (including being subject to sanctions for doping violations) do not occur. The same applies to the IADO itself, as the new regulations are beginning to demand greater vigilance from IADO and all NADOs worldwide in carrying out their responsibilities.
The links are as follows:
- In Indonesian: https://iado.id/h/index.php/id/sumber-kode-anti-doping-dunia-2027/
- In English: https://iado.id/h/index.php/en/resources-world-anti-doping-code-2027/
Jakarta, 31 March 2026.
IADO Chairman,
Gatot S. Dewa Broto