Amnesty International leverages the public interest in sport to broaden public awareness and support for their human rights causes, and highlights the human rights responsibilities of sporting bodies under the UNGPs. Amnesty has witnessed the increased in human rights violations and abuses when mega sporting events are organized, including the suppression of freedom of expression, forcible evictions and the exploitation of migrant workers, as well as attempts by states to “sportswash” their human rights records. Amnesty also recognizes sport can be a powerful force for change.

The Committee to Protect Journalists leverages public interest in sport to draw attention to press freedom violations around sports and mega sporting events, including cases where journalists are censored or prevented from reporting important stories about these events, and in the countries hosting them. Beyond censorship of individual journalists, preventing critical coverage denies the public access to vitally important information. In addition, sporting events provide a rare opportunity to bring international pressure on behalf of journalists in countries that may have poor records of supporting press freedom or where the governments have not been responding to other forms of advocacy. 

The Army of Survivors is a non-profit organization whose mission is to bring awareness, accountability and transparency to sexual violence against athletes. Created by a group of more than 40 athlete survivors of sexual violence, The Army of Survivors is the only national organization advocating for and supporting child athlete survivors of sexual violence through resources, advocacy and education.

Football Supporters Europe (FSE) has drawn attention to discrimination, racist abuse, policing, police violence and discrimination against fans and supporters with disabilities. A key area of focus for FSE is to establish remedy for fans affected by sexual and gender-based violence and discrimination in football. Inclusion of human rights in Article 3 in the FIFA statutes represented a key win, meaning that FSE can now hold FIFA accountable for the human rights of fans as well.

ILGA World has identified sport as a place where people feel excluded, shamed and bullied. Sports is also a strategic opportunity to promote change in very conservative and closed countries. For ILGA, sports acts as a microcosm of the more conservative and bigoted part of societies, excluding ILGA communities from accessing the may benefits of sport, either as spectators or participants in terms of finding respect.

Human Rights Watch conducts on-the-ground research in more than 100 countries, documenting abuses of human rights in sport for more than two decades. Using research and survivor testimony, Human Rights Watch informs, advocates and pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and sport governing bodies such as the IOC and FIFA to adopt, entrench and implement international human rights. Recent reports document worker deaths and wage-cheating in stadium construction, anti-LGBT discrimination in sport, violations of gender equality and press freedom, crimes against humanity by Olympic hosts, corporal punishment of child athletes in training, and sexual abuse of women and girls in football federations.

The ITUC has long sought to change the rules of the global economy. Sport has played a key role to drive home its message from exposing corrupt governance, abuses in sports supply chains, labour and child rights violations in nations hosting mega sporting events, exploitation of migrant construction workers to child labour. For the ITUC, Qatar was a breakthrough and an example of what can be achieved in the future.

Transparency International has exposed the corruption in sport and the management malpractices that have characterized sports administration. Its report on Global Corruption in Sport (2016) confirmed that ordinary people are losing faith in those who run sport. From poor governance and match fixing to bribery, money laundering, and “sextortion” (including of minors), the many faces of corruption threaten the values of sport that attract billions of people to watch and engage in sport. Sports organisations must be open about how they operate, the money they make, and how they spend it.

World Players is the leading voice of organised players in the governance of world sport. It brings together 85,000 players across professional sport through more than 100 players associations in over 60 countries. World Players affiliates have an unparalleled track record of embedding the human rights of players in sports through collective bargaining and ensuring access to effective remedy for players. World Players is committed to the implementation of the Universal Declaration of Player Rights (UDPR) and to ensure child athletes rights are promoted, respected and protected through Project CARE.