A report from the Institute of European Sport Development and Leisure Studies (IESD) has recommended that major sporting events, such as the World Cups, should be used as a catalyst to highlight human rights abuses in host countries.
Researchers from the IESD analysed the press coverage before, during and after the three major sports events of 2014 – the Sochi Winter Olympics, the FIFA World Cup in Brazil and the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
Their findings, published in the Children’s Rights and Mega Sporting Events in 2014 report, show that the UK rated the highest out of 12 countries assessed for quantity of human rights coverage.
Meanwhile Russia, despite hosting the Sochi Games, came last for its human rights media coverage. Russia’s coverage of human rights issues connected to sports events comprised only 0.49 per cent of the total analysed.
Also detailed in the report is the finding that while coverage of human rights issues is at its highest in the two to five month-period before the events, this momentum is not sustained, with coverage dying out almost completely after the event.
The analysis, conducted on behalf of Terre des Hommes – an international children's rights charity - is in connection with its Children Win campaign. The aim of the campaign is to highlight the impact major sporting events have on children. The campaign calls on sports governing bodies to ensure that these events do not cause or exacerbate child rights violations in their local communities.
“It seems to be a general pattern that attention for human rights and children’s rights issues increases and peaks directly before major events,” said Karen Petry.
“But it drops during the events and vanishes afterwards. This trend may suggest more work needs to be done to ensure that coverage and scrutiny of these events continue in the months - and even years - after they take place.”
The publication of the report was planned to coincide with the Rio 2016 One Year To Go celebrations.
To read the full Children’s Rights and Mega Sporting Events in 2014 report, click here.
