Background

​​​​

The world of sport is a complex ecosystem that brings together a range of public and private entities involved in administering and growing sports, recruiting and managing athletes and teams, developing and delivering sporting events, and coming together in value chains to produce products and merchandise. This global ecosystem includes investors, local and national governments, venues, universities, manufacturers, service providers, hotels, broadcasters, and the media. As a sector, sport has a range of positive and negative human rights impacts just like any other, impacting the rights of athletes, workers, volunteers, journalists, officials, fans, and the general public. 

 

Major sporting events are the pinnacle of sport, capturing global attention, mobilising a wide range of stakeholders, and drawing attention to the human rights conditions in host countries. More and more countries in Asia are hosting these events: Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore will host the next three editions of the South East Asian Games, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka will host various editions of Cricket World Cups, and numerous other events will take place over the next 24 months. Many countries will be hosting two or more events over the next few years, presenting a unique opportunity to embed human rights into the development, delivery, and legacy of these mega sport events. 

​​​​

Objectives​​

​

This panel will centre itself on the UNGPs and how they apply to sport, with a focus on remedy. For many of the stakeholders in the audience, sport will be a new topic and perhaps not an area where they feel they have leverage or responsibility. By showcasing an ecosystem approach, and using examples from across the Asia region, this session will:

• Introduce the actors in the sport ecosystem,

• Demonstrate how the UNGPs apply to different actors in sport, 

• Examine how human rights due diligence is already, and how it could be, applied to sporting events in the Asia-Pacific region,

• Demonstrate how various stakeholders can play a role in applying the UNGPs to sports and sporting events.

 

The session will have a particular focus on remedy, with the Centre for Sport and Human Rights (CSHR) opening the session by presenting its new Roadmap to Remedy guidance - a new series of tools exploring what needs to improve when it comes to responding to abuse cases in sport and sporting events. Over the past two years, the CSHR has researched and consulted widely with a range of stakeholders on how sports can improve their responses to reports of abuse. With support from the Clifford Chance Foundation, CSHR teamed up with a group of Affected Persons from different sports across the globe to explore together what needs to improve when it comes to responding to abuse and providing access to remedy, in terms of investigating cases, reaching determinations and resolutions based on the evidence gathered in investigations, and better engaging Affected Persons in building longer term solutions. The project outputs provide knowledge, recommendations, and practical tools for sport bodies and Affected Persons and their representatives to raise the standard of access to remedy for abuse cases in sport. The lessons developed from this project, and the tools themselves offer transferable insights to representatives of businesses, government, and civil society looking to better understand how to respond to abuse cases of all types in ways that are trauma-informed, people-centred, and human rights compatible.

​

Key questions

​

• To what extent is access to remedy a challenge in sports and for sporting events? 

• What is the current status quo at mega-sporting events when it comes to providing access to remedy for human rights abuses?

• What roles and responsibilities do different actors whithin the sport ecosystem have to provide access to remedy for human abuses in sports?