Our goal

The sports sector globally is unifying and advancing its human rights activities considerably. In July 2017 the Kazan Action Plan (KAP) was adopted "to facilitate international and multi-stakeholder policy convergence, ease international cooperation and foster capacity-building efforts of governmental authorities and sports". KAP is a coherent mechanism for policy development, implementation and monitoring aligned with universal human rights and the SDGs within and beyond the UN system. It has led to a coordinated and collaborative momentum in global sport, accelerating action to advance the sectoral response to the sustainable development agenda and its human rights alignment. As part of the follow-up to KAP, the UNESCO Chair "Transforming the Lives of People with Disabilities, their Families and Communities, Through Physical Education, Sport, Recreation and Fitness", is leading a sectoral partnership with the aim to advance mechanisms for reporting and follow-up on human rights and sport. A key part of this work is developing reporting templates and advocacy tools to help the sports sector navigate the complexities of UN human rights systems and explain how to engage with the Treaty Bodies, as well as to highlight to States and national human rights institutions (NHRIs) how they can increase reporting on sport. Please note that “sport” reflects physical education, physical activity and sport.

Progress to date

To date, the UNESCO Chair has held meetings with the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Committee on the Rights of the Child as well as a briefing during UPR35. In our meetings with the Committees we have made the following asks:

1. Consider publishing a General Comment on Physical Education, Physical Activity and Sport (PEPAS).
2. Advocate and endorse the development of a UN Human Rights Fact Sheet on PEPAS.
3. Ensure, through direct reference in guidance notes and or list of issues, that state and non-state reporting mechanisms include representation from the PEPAS sector.
4. Endorse and promote the development of reporting templates and advocacy tools on the treaty body and PEPAS.

Future actions

We would like to invite States, NHRIs and civil society to join us in supporting our actions in relation to KAP. This would mean being listed as a country/organisation who supports Kazan Action Plan actions on Human Rights in and through sport. There is no time commitment or no financial commitment, but you will be kept informed of developments.

In the Downloads page you will find short infographics and guidance tools for civil society, States and NHRIs on how to engage with the following mechanisms on human rights and sport:

• Universal Periodic Review
• Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
• Convention on the Rights of the Child
• International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights

Looking forward, our next action is to pilot these tools. For States who are preparing for reviews under any of the above five mechanisms we invite you to trial these draft tools and engage with the sports sector in developing your reports. We would be very interested in any feedback on how they contribute towards the reporting process.

We are also planning on developing sample reports to provide guidance on what would constitute good reporting on sport. We invite any State or sport organisation who has previously reported on sport to the UPR or Treaty Bodies and who has material that could be used for this exercise to share it with us.