Sport and Rights

Qatar's human rights record has been in the spotlight since they won the right to host the FIFA Mens World Cup back in 2010.

Recently there have been some major developments in labour laws in the country but there are still a lot of challenges, including ensuring that standards developed for the World Cup take root across the country.

In this podcast Centre CEO Mary Harvey sits down with two people who have been at the centre of all the changes:

- Ambet Yuson, General Secretary of BWI (Building and Wood Workers International, the global trade union representing over 12 million construction workers worldwide)

- His Excellency Hassan Al Thawadi, the Secretary General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy and the CEO of the Qatar World Cup Local Organising Committee.

This year has seen two major impacts on the world of sport. The Covid-19

pandemic has disrupted sport all over the world, and with it, threats to athlete,

fan and worker health and safety. We also saw an increase in athlete activism,

ignited by the deaths of George Floyd, Brionna Taylor and Ahmaud Aubry. At

the Centre, we’ve looked at how both of these events have impacted the world

of sport and human rights. How can sport return to play safely? What of the

impact on women’s sport? And how can athlete activism and athlete voice –

their right to freedom of expression – be accommodated on the field of play?

One league in particular, the National Women’s Soccer League or NWSL, in the

United States, successfully navigated these challenges in holding its 2020

season – the first professional sports league in the United States to do so – this

past spring.

At the helm of the NSWL is Commissioner Lisa Baird. Lisa is the former chief

marketing officer of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and a senior

VP of marketing and licensing for the NFL.

Just five months into her tenure, Commissioner Baird navigated a return to

sport during the Covid pandemic, negotiated a landmark broadcast deal,

secured big-name sponsors and announced a new expansion team in Los

Angeles.

In conversation with Centre CEO Mary Harvey, Commissioner Baird talked about her first season in the NWSL, and how she navigated what may have been the

choppiest waters ever faced for the League.

In the first of our regular series of podcasts, Centre CEO Mary Harvey spoke to Minky Worden, the Director of Global Initiatives at Human Rights Watch.

Minky has taught as an Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) since 2013. Before joining Human Rights Watch in 1998, Worden lived and worked in Hong Kong as an adviser to Democratic Party chairman Martin Lee and worked at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. as a speechwriter for the U.S. Attorney General. She is the editor of The Unfinished Revolution 2012 and China's Great Leap 2008, and the co-editor of Torture 2005.

Minky spoke about the recent Human Rights Watch report on the abuse of child athletes in Japan 'I Was Hit So Many Times I Can’t Count' the recent tragic suicide of South Korean triathlete Choi Suk-hyeon and how sport can be a catalyst to improve human rights worldwide. You can follow Minky on Twitter @MinkysHighjinks and Human Rights Watch @HRW.

Welcome to the Sport and Rights podcast, brought to you by the Centre for Sport and Human Rights.