The Centre's Sport Ecosystem Model features prominently in the United Nations Secretary-General's 2024 report

19 Dec 2024

Author - Centre for Sport and Human Rights

The United Nations has published its 2024 Secretary-General’s report on sport for development and peace: "United by our common goals: ensuring the impact of sport on sustainable development and peace."

The report, published on 1 October 2024, examines the contribution of sport to achieving peace and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It describes progress on implementing the United Nations Action Plan on Sport for Development and Peace between 2022 and 2024.

Drawing on inputs from leading global experts, Member States, the United Nations system and other stakeholders, this report focuses on progress in five priority areas of impact:

(i) social inclusion through sport
(ii) physical activity, physical education, and community-based participation in sport
(iii) gender equality in and through sport
(iv) peacebuilding and crime prevention
(v) sustainable communities and climate action.

Each section reviews progress between 2022 and 2024, highlighting gaps in implementation that prevent sport from being fully utilized as a tool for development and peace.

Centre for Sport and Human Rights' team members Katie Hanna, Thays Prado and Guido Battaglia participated in May in the virtual Expert Group consultations led by UNDESA supporting the development of the report. Through a series of structured discussions, experts from across the sport ecosystem contributed their knowledge and perspectives with respect to sport as a transformational power in people’s lives and as an enabler of sustainable development and peace.

The Centre’s overview of the global sport ecosystem is used and represented in the report to deepen understanding of the multiple stakeholders engaged in sport and to highlight potential entry points and opportunities for strengthening implementation of the UN Action Plan amidst current global challenges:

"The model of the global sport ecosystem (see figure I) devised by the Centre for Sport and Human Rights provides a human rights-focused, people-centred perspective of the sport ecosystem and shows the large number and diversity of organizations and people that contribute to it in their different roles and capacities. Identifying the stakeholders can help to better understand their contribution to the global sport ecosystem at the different levels and the interrelationships within the ecosystem. It can also help to identify new opportunities and changes needed to better position sport for development and peace programmes and policies to achieve the 2030 Agenda."

Among the measures undertaken by all actors in priority areas of impact, the report makes a reference to the Centre’s Playbook series to support and empower sport bodies globally to make robust human rights commitments. It also includes a reference to the Roadmap to Remedy project, "which is aimed at improving the response to reports of abuse in sport. As part of the project, victims, survivors and whistle-blowers across the globe were consulted to identify what needs to be improved in sport when it comes to investigating abuse, reaching determinations and resolutions and engaging affected persons in building longer-term solutions."

Lastly, the report also provides strategic recommendations directed at the UN system, Member States and the global sport ecosystem to support implementation of the UN Action Plan.

Key recommendations to Member States and actors in the sport ecosystem explicitly reference the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, including the specific recommendation to Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework, including by:
(i) Reviewing, assisting with and strengthening the implementation of a human rights policy;
(ii) Establishing voluntary mechanisms to ensure due diligence with regard to monitoring and evaluation;
(iii) Promoting and supporting action in response to findings to prevent, mitigate and remedy rights violations and share lessons learned;

The Centre is very pleased to see its principles, tools and research prominently featured in this report and looks forward to further engaging with all actors in the sport ecosystem to advance a world of responsible sport.

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