Jump to: Press release from announcement of review and report, Dec. 2015 | Report | Press release on report, April 2016
Update: In March 2017 Shift Managing Director and Co-Founder Rachel Davis joined the newly established FIFA Human Rights Advisory Board. We see our participation in this Board as a significant opportunity to push for FIFA’s implementation of the April 2016 report For the Game. For the World. FIFA and Human Rights (link above), authored by John Ruggie with support from Shift. In our participation on this Board, we retain complete independence and do not accept any financial or other compensation for our time.
In December 2015, Shift Chair, Harvard professor and author of the Guiding Principles John Ruggie was asked by the world governing body of football FIFA to develop recommendations for embedding the Guiding Principles into FIFA’s policies and practices. In April 2016, those recommendations were published in an independent public report. The recommendations are based on a comprehensive review of human rights in the context of FIFA’s activities and events including consultations with internal and external stakeholders.
Ruggie was supported by a team from Shift and consulted with a range of internal and external stakeholder to undertake the review and develop his recommendations.
“FIFA’s global reach means that this initiative has the potential to make a difference where it matters most: in the daily lives of people,” said Ruggie. “I fully recognize that there will be challenges and complex change takes time. However, this has the potential to set the bar for other global sports organizations, and place respect for human rights front and center for a broad range of entities involved in global sporting events.”
“This is another important step in our ongoing reform process,” said acting FIFA President Issa Hayatou. “I am proud to see that FIFA is taking the lead among international sports organizations on such an important topic. Football and FIFA have an important role to play in this field; respect for human rights has to be at the core of our sport.”
This initiative builds on FIFA’s commitment to recognizing the relevance of the UN Guiding Principles to its operations, seeking technical support from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and announcing publicly its plans to make the Guiding Principles part of how it conducts its activities.
