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Mega-Sporting Events and Human Rights

Teachers can use the following resources as classroom material, assigned readings, and research sources for the topic of Mega-Sporting Events and Human Rights.

• Readings

• Primary Sources

• Reports – NGOs

• Commentary

• Cases

• Videos

• Lesson Plans

• Links

Readings

Primary Sources

The Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup have been the focus of most attention to the human rights impacts of mega-sporting events. The Mega-Sporting Events Platform for Human Rights administered by the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB) is a multi-stakeholder initiative that has produced a range of materials addressing approaches to managing the social risks and adverse human rights impacts arising from mega-sporting events.

Olympics

• Olympic Charter (15 September 2017), available at https://stillmed.olympic.org/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/General/EN-Olympic-Charter.pdf#_ga=2.90402778.1727116463.1514465506-1597313024.1505207328.

• International Olympic Committee, Host City Contract – Principles – Games of the XXXIII Olympiad in 2024, available at http://stillmed.olympic.org/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/Documents/Host-City-Elections/XXXIII-Olympiad-2024/Host-City-Contract-2024-Principles.pdf .

FIFA

• FIFA Statutes, available at http://resources.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/generic/02/78/29/07/fifastatutsweben_neutral.pdf.

• FIFA, Fact Sheet: FIFA’s Human Rights approach (April 2016), available at https://resources.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/footballgovernance/02/89/33/12/fifashumanrightspolicy_neutral.pdf.

• John G. Ruggie, “For the Game. For the World” FIFA & Human Rights (2016), available at https://www.hks.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/centers/mrcbg/programs/cri/files/Ruggie_humanrightsFIFA_reportApril2016.pdf.

Ruggie interprets how the United Nations Guiding Principles apply to FIFA and recommends what FIFA can do to embed respect for human rights across its global operations.

Mega-Sporting Events Platform for Human Rights

• Mega-Sporting Events Platform for Human Rights, Sporting Chance White Paper Series (2017), available at https://www.ihrb.org/megasportingevents/mse-news/sporting-chance-white-papers.

• Mega-Sporting Events Platform for Human Rights, The 2016 Sporting Chance Principles, available at https://www.ihrb.org/megasportingevents/sporting-chance-principles.

• The Sporting Chance Forum, Collective Action on Mega-Sporting Events and Human Rights, Meeting Report (13-14 Oct. 2016, Washington D.C.), available at https://www.ihrb.org/uploads/meeting-reports/IHRB_et_al%2C_Sporting_Chance_Forum_Meeting_Report%2C_Dec_2016.pdf.

Reports – NGOs

Non-governmental organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have done extensive research on the exploitation of workers and violations of housing rights linked to MSEs.

• Amnesty International, The Ugly Side of The Beautiful Game – Exploitation of Migrant Workers on a Qatar 2022 World Cup Site (2016), available at https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde22/3548/2016/en/.

• Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), Fair Play for Housing Rights: Mega-events, Olympic Games and Housing Rights : Opportunities for the Olympic Movement and Others (2007), available at http://www.ruig-gian.org/ressources/Report%20Fair%20Play%20FINAL%20FINAL%20070531.pdf.

Presents an extensive documentation of the impact of Olympic Games on housing rights since the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

• Human Rights Watch, Red Card – Exploitation of Workers on World Cup Sites in Russia, (2017), available at https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/russiafifa0617_web_0.pdf.

The most recent study on worker’s rights violations in relation to the World Cup.

• Institute for Human Rights and Business, 2024 Olympic Bid Evaluation – A Human Rights Review, (2017), available at https://www.ihrb.org/uploads/briefings/IOC_2024_Evaluation_-_Briefing_-_25_July_2017.pdf.

• Publica, Project 100, available at https://apublica.org/100/?lang=en.

An interactive website hosted by the Agência de Reportagem e Jornalismo Investigativo (Brazil) with stories of evictions related to the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Commentary

• Lucy Amis, Mega-Sporting Events and Human Rights—A Time for More Teamwork? Business and Human Rights Journal (Vol. 2(1), 2017) 135-141), available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/business-and-human-rights-journal/article/div-classtitlemega-sporting-events-and-human-rightsa-time-for-more-teamworka-hreffn36-ref-typefnadiv/8568EF8374EED88811800C08998DEE15 .

Provides a good overview of the different actors involved in MSEs and how they can jointly address related human rights impacts.

• Jean-Loup Chappelet and Brenda Kübler-Mabbott, The International Olympic Committee and the Olympic System : The Governance of World Sport (Routledge, 2008).

• Megan Corrarino, Law Exclusion Zones”: Mega-Events as Sites of Procedural and Substantive Human Rights Violations 17 Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal (2014) 180.

• Bent Flyvbjerg, Allison Stewart, and Alexander Budzier, The Oxford Olympics Study 2016: Cost and Cost Overrun at the Games, Saïd Business School Working Papers (2016).

• Ryan Gauthier, The International Olympic Committee, Law, and Accountability (Routledge, 2017).

• International Trade Union Confederation, Frontline Report 2015 – Qatar: Profit and Loss – Counting the Cost of Modern Day Slavery in Qatar: What Price Is Freedom? (2015), available at https://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/qatar_en_web.pdf.

• Roger Pielke, How can FIFA be held accountable?, 16 Sport Management Review (2013) 255–267.

Provides useful arguments and details on the complexities that arise when trying to hold FIFA accountable for the harmful consequences of the FIFA World Cup.

• Minky Worden, Director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch, Op-Ed, The Olympics’ Leadership Mess, The New York Times (August 12, 2013), available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/13/opinion/the-olympics-leadership-mess.html.

Cases

• Handelsgericht des Kanton Zürich, Netherlands Trade Union Confederation (FNV) & NADIM SHARIFUL ALAM VERSUS FIFA, case summary available at http://www.prakkendoliveira.nl/user/file/case_summary_(fnv_&_alam_vs_fifa).pdf.

• Swiss OECD National Contact Point, “Specific Instance regarding the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) submitted by Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB)”
  • Initial Assessment available at https://www.seco.admin.ch/seco/en/home/Aussenwirtschaftspolitik_Wirtschaftliche_Zusammenarbeit/Wirtschaftsbeziehungen/NKP/Statements_zu_konkreten_Faellen.html .
  • Final Statement, available at https://www.seco.admin.ch/seco/en/home/Aussenwirtschaftspolitik_Wirtschaftliche_Zusammenarbeit/Wirtschaftsbeziehungen/NKP/Statements_zu_konkreten_Faellen.html . 

Videos

• Adam Sobel, Documentary, The Worker’s Cup (2017), trailer available at http://www.theworkerscupfilm.com/.

• Journeyman Pictures, The Hidden Brutality of Qatar’s World Cup Preparations, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6yoBcEXwmQ .

• Vox, 2016 Olympics: What Rio doesn’t want the world to see, Part I, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W_zM7koJy8 .

• Vox, Inside Rio’s favelas, the city’s neglected neighborhoods, Part II, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3BRTlHFpBU . 

Lesson Plan

• Daniela Heerdt, Class-plan for Guest Lecture, “Human Rights and Mega-Sporting Events” (Master Course Human Rights Law 2017, Tilburg Law School). 

Links

• Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)

• International Olympic Committee

• Mega-Sporting Events Platform for Human Rights

A multi-stakeholder initiative administered by the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB).

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This bibliography may be cited as:

Daniela Heerdt, “Teaching Resources for Mega-Sporting Events and Human Rights,” in Teaching Business and Human Rights Handbook (Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum, 2018), https://teachbhr.org/resources/teaching-bhr-handbook/teaching-notes/mega-sporting-events-and-human-rights-2/teaching-resources/.