"The Glasgow 2014 Organising Committee leads the race on Human Rights. Will other organising committees follow in their wake?", 23 Jul 2014

This week…Glasgow…hosts the XX Commonwealth Games…Meanwhile, calls for reforming MSEs [mega-sporting events] are having some effect…[I]t is noteworthy that the Glasgow 2014 Organising Committee has stolen a march on both FIFA and Olympic organisers with regard to human rights…[It] became the first MSE organising committee or delivery body to release an explicit human rights statement…[Its] Approach to Human Rights acknowledges…competing athletes, its workforce, the volunteers, spectators and its contractors, as well as the wider the people of the Commonwealth, all have rights and freedoms enshrined in national and international law. The statement explicitly adds that “The Glasgow 2014 Organising Committee has an obligation – both moral and legal, and with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in mind – to respect, support and promote these rights through the course of its normal business.”…[T]he games organisers had earlier committed to pay a Living Wage and to require the games’ international suppliers to meet employment standards set out in the International Labour Organizations’ (ILO) Fundamental Conventions...Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB) has been calling on organisations associated with MSEs - like FIFA, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), International Paralympic Committee (IPC), and Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), host governments, local organising committees and delivery authorities, sponsors and contracting companies - to use the Guiding Principles…This is why the Glasgow 2014 Organising Committee has set an important benchmark with its human rights statement…What next? The forthcoming MSE hosts include Rio de Janeiro, set to host the 2016 Olympics; Russia, scheduled to welcome the next FIFA World Cup in 2018; the South Korean city of Pyeongchang which will host the 2018 Winter Olympics; Tokyo, now preparing to welcome visitors to the 2020 Summer Olympics; and Qatar, still under the spotlight ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup because of concerns about labour rights. None of these hosts has so far made any reference to the Guiding Principles or shown evidence of carrying out human rights due diligence…