Advancing the Collective Impact of Commonwealth Games Associations

On 4 September 2019 the Centre convened a full-day workshop for CGAs, including interactive sessions mapping potential human rights impacts, and identifying opportunities to advance rights in national sport. We also had the opportunity to bring together CGAs with the NHRI representatives, an engagement that led several participants to suggest future collaborations with their respective counterparts. This again is the start of a journey, and the candid exchanges with CGA representatives was an important first step in realising Commonwealth Sport’s human rights vision. Each national context presents different risks and opportunities, and by encouraging sports bodies to work with NHRIs we hope to find scale in ensuring sporting organisations embed their responsibilities and use the special power of sport to promote human rights. This session also allowed us to delve deeper into the tailoring the guidance we provide to sports bodies. Our “Championing Human Rights in the Governance of Sports Bodies” tool is a great place to start, but not all sports bodies or federations are alike, and we appreciated the opportunity to consult with CGAs about how we can better hone this guidance to be directly applicable for national multi-sport governing bodies such as CGAs.