Sustainable Sourcing & Grievance Mechanisms for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics & Paralympics

On Wednesday 13th September 2017, the Mega-Sporting Events Platform for Human Rights (MSE Platform), IHRB, and Caux Roundtable Japan will convene a workshop on implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights in the context of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. 

The workshop will take a particular focus on implementation of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee's (TOCOG) Sustainable Sourcing Code published in March 2017, as well as emerging plans for an associated grievance mechanism.

Participants will include a range of Japanese Government departments, TOCOG, Japanese and international Olympic sponsor companies, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and international organisations including the former head of the London 2012 Sustainability Commission, Ergon Associates, IHRB, Human Rights Watch, UNICEF Japan, BWI, ITUC-AP, World Players Association, the Swiss Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and OECD.

The objective of the workshop is to support all actors involved in preparing and delivering the Tokyo 2020 Games to fully embrace and operationalise their human rights duties and responsibilities throughout the event’s lifecycle. The MSE Platform aims to help the collective efforts between TOCOG and sponsor companies to respect human rights by specifically focussing on three subjects of significance: human rights risks, best practices, and grievance mechanisms. 

The Mega-Sporting Events Platform for Human Rights is a multi-stakeholder coalition of international and intergovernmental organisations, governments, sports governing bodies, athletes, unions, sponsors broadcasters, and civil society groups. The Institute for Human Rights and Business serves as its secretariat. Over the past two years the MSE Platform has worked develop more comprehensive, consistent, and accountable approaches to managing social risks and adverse human rights impacts arising from mega-sporting events, and overcome the barriers to better knowledge transfer and good practice within and between sport traditions and events. 

The Caux Round Table Japan (CRT-Japan) is the Japanese arm of an international network of principled business leaders working to promote a moral capitalism. We offer practical advice to corporations in the area of business and human rights in Japan.