In association with the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015, Canadian and U.S. celebrities are participating in the #HighFiveIt campaign for UNICEF with the universal high-five gesture.
According to UNICEF, almost one thousand children die every day worldwide because of the lack of clean water. Conditions are worsened for those without proper nutrition, immunizations, safety and infant health.
The #HighFiveIt campaign raises money to develop strategies to solve these issues as well as implement the plans created. UNICEF will also help to educate the areas that suffer from these problems with techniques that continue to improve upon the tactics that UNICEF will put in place.
In Canada, Karina LeBlanc, the Canadian Women’s National Team goalkeeper and UNICEF ambassador, helped start the campaign by high-fiving Christine Sinclair, the captain of Canada’s team.
UNICEF asks that supporters take part in #HighFiveIt by posting a photo or video of a high-five during a sporting match, tagging five friends in the post and donating to UNICEF.
Among the supporters are many celebrities who have pledged to help save lives of children in poor areas. Disney Channel stars Calum Worthy, Raini Rodriguez and Laura Marano are giving their high-fives for UNICEF, and so are Rico Rodriguez from “Modern Family” and Peter Mooney, Missy Peregrym, Priscilla Faia and Erin Karpluck from “Rookie Blue.”
In addition, several other Canadian and American politicians, athletes and celebrities are pledging to #HighFiveIt to save citizens in poor areas.
UNICEF Canada’s Chief Development Officer, Sharon Avery, said that she is very pleased with the support from these celebrities as their backing will draw a lot of attention to the cause.
“It’s wonderful to see our homegrown talent, along with several American celebrities, taking part in this campaign to save lives,” Avery said. “I’ve seen the impact of UNICEF’s work with children in Honduras and Dominica and am excited to have my passions — soccer and reaching children through UNICEF — come together with #HighFiveIt.”
Though their involvement was very important, celebrities were not the only people taking part in #HighFiveIt. 7,238 UNICEF fans took part in the Guinness World Record for the greatest number of people simultaneously giving a high-five. This event broke the previous record by 2,542 people.
With such a large number of supporters giving high-fives, UNICEF hopes to reach their goals. The organization’s website offers five different life-saving options to donate to, the first being “greatest gift.” If the donator chooses to give to “greatest gift,” the money will be presented to areas that need change the most.
“Children living in conflict and vulnerable situations will benefit from your generosity,” UNICEF said.
By selecting “infant health,” the donator will fund the implementation of baby-friendly hospitals, training of health-care workers and breastfeeding education for mothers. If the supporter chooses “vaccines,” the donation will be used to provide vital vaccinations for tetanus, polio, measles and other life-threatening diseases. By clicking on “nutrition,” the funding will go to efforts to end starvation and malnutrition, and with the selection of “water,” the donation will be used to create water-catchment devices for a better opportunity to provide clean water to developing areas.
Because UNICEF presents the chance of choosing to give directly to causes that the supporter prefers, the organization has created a more personal donation experience. That being said, each dollar the supporter gives to their choice source will be matched by UNICEF, up to two million dollars.
Celebrities and fans of UNICEF can potentially raise more than four million dollars with this promise. To join the cause and help save the lives of people in need, go to unicef.ca or search #HighFiveIt.
– Fallon Lineberger
Sources: Look to the Stars, UNICEF 1, UNICEF 2, UNICEF 3
Photo: Newswire
Fighting Corruption 101
One key strategy used to fight institutional corruption, is to keep governments accountable. Accountability is only achievable by watching the government. Watching the government and people in office requires transparency. Too many secrets in government can keep corrupt practices under the covers and away from the eyes of the fourth estate – journalists.
Journalists are a critical to keeping governments and officials accountable to the people they preside over. Without transparency of government affairs, journalists’ ability to do proper reporting is often compromised, and this system of checks-and-balances becomes weakened. Corruption can be held back by vocal journalists with access to government documents and news, so that they may raise concerns and questions to the general population.
Corruption is also made easier when the bureaucracy grows too large and unwieldy. The farther the public is from the top levels of government, the easier it is for someone in between to take advantage of his or her own position. Minimizing red tape means there is less of an opportunity for someone to be corrupted. There is a correlation between high levels of pointless and unhelpful regulation, and corrupt practices in government.
A third method to reducing corruption, and one of the most effective – but difficult to quantify and implement – is to simply create stronger institutions of governance and regulation. A strong institution is one that has loyal employees and is immune to most corruption because of its own internal integrity. Paying good wages and benefits to government workers is highly effective in working against corruption because the monetary incentives for corruption would be severely weakened by good wages.
Introducing technology to handle tasks is also an effective way to reduce corruption. It’s much harder to cook the books or do other similar elicit activity when software takes care of the work on its own and can spot irregularities.
Fighting corruption is imperative to creating conditions in which poverty can be systematically eliminated. Corruption often manifests itself through rent-seeking behaviors where regulators are “captured” (corrupted by the people that would have been regulated), and these behaviors are often very regressive against the poor because of their lack of political voice in most cases. Reducing corruption is also beneficial to local economies because it allows outside investors to have greater interest in the region, due to less risk of higher sunk costs.
Corruption is detrimental to the economy and bad for the poor. Using these aforementioned strategies can help eliminate the culture of corruption in many developing nations, as well as already developed ones.
– Martin Yim
Sources: World Bank, European Commission, IMF
Photo: World Bank
Angonix is Connecting Angola to the World Wide Web
Angonix will change the connection performance. Content delivered by outside sources had provided minimal performance and high latency. The main goal of Angonix is to ensure every member connected to the platform will have low latency and improved content.
Angonix is operated by Angola Cables, who also oversee the connectivity of Angola with the world’s undersea fibre-optic cables. With Angonix, quality service to content will enable the progression of African Internet outreach and global connection. Places in Africa, such as Zambia, still rely on satellite Internet connectivity, which is ultimately unreliable.
Launched March 16, 2015, the expected traffic has enhanced quality content especially in exchanging information between clients and providers. In the past, local clients had to travel some distance to interconnect. This was thanks to configuration problems of network providers.
Working to minimize that distance, providers will have easy access in communicating with clients and vice versa. This development is meant to dramatically change the African Internet landscape. It’s been designed to reach beyond Angola and to help provide low latency between Africa, East Asia and the Americas.
iHub is an online and offline community that hosts a place for 50 companies to connect to clients and has held 500 events. It is a space for online developers working with technology software and is a very well known site in Africa.
Sites like this need to be able to connect elsewhere on the continent. Governments are currently struggling with net neutrality debates and whether or not laws should be in place to support investments that connect rural Africa to enabled environments.
Fibre-optic cables are still needed in South Africa to improve Internet access and link those citizens to the world. The problem is that homes and businesses cannot connect.
Rural Africa is the untapped market. Lesser-developed regions such as Somalia had 200 users in 2000, but 163,185 users in 2014 with a population of 10 million. The Congo Democratic Republic had 500 users in 2000, but 1.7 million users in 2014 with a population of 77 million.
The Communication Commission of Kenya reported 330 thousand mobile users in 2001, and 30 million in 2013. The Angola population had 30 thousand people using the Internet in the year 2000, and 4 million in 2014 with a population of 19 million. Kenya had 200 thousand Internet users in 2000, but 21 million users in 2014 with a population of 45 million.
In sub-Saharan Africa there are over 754 million connections and over 35 mobile networks operators. An SMS-based banking system called M-Pesa in Kenya transfers $24 million daily. Zimbabwe’s EcoCash signed up 2.3 million people in more than a year, after starting in 2011. More than a million accounts push $200 million through EcoCash monthly.
Yet, the continent produces less than one Terabits per second. Angola produces 20 gigabits per second. The demand of improved, constant Internet access is supposed to raise Terabit per second to 10 by 2020, according to TeleGeography.
Projects like West African Cables Systems and South Africa Cable Systems improve connectivity as Angonix improves capacity services. With this, better quality increases capacity of performance, communication and outreach.
The Southern African Development Community has advanced its Internet market. The opportunity for expansion and innovation comes from this improvement. Angola Cables is working to better the growth of Africa with its new technologies in providing services. By improving outreach to the World Wide Web Africa’s communication and business, practices will continue to enhance and expand to rural areas.
– Katie Groe
Sources: IT News Africa, Angola Cables, Angonix 1, Angonix 2, UN, Internet Word Stats
Photo: Africa 21
In Brazil, Breastfeeding Positively Correlates with Education Level
What do breastfeeding, IQ range, education, and income all have to do with each other?
In Pelotas, Brazil, a recent study reveals the long-term benefits of breastfeeding. While the short term health and nutrition benefits have been widely acknowledged, this study has discovered new and exciting benefits to breastfeeding.
Here are the two key findings:
1. Duration and predominance of breastfeeding are positively associated with IQ, educational attainment, and income.
2. There is a dose-response association with breastfeeding duration for IQ and educational attainment.
The study was implemented with a population-based birth cohort from 1982. Information about breastfeeding patterns was recorded in early childhood. 30 years later, information related to IQ, levels of education, and income was collected.
Participants who were breastfed for at least 12 months had higher IQ scores, more years of education, and even higher monthly incomes compared to those participants who were breastfed for less than one month.
These results could have important implications for developing countries and the reduction of poverty. It is critical that mothers are supported in breastfeeding. It is recognized that there is not a direct causal link. However, the long-term results from this study could imply that children who are breastfed are more likely to achieve the education that will help them provide for their families. This offers them the opportunity to draw their communities out of poverty.
While breastfeeding is not the only factor related to potential education attainment and income, this study demonstrates that it is an important one. Further evaluation is needed to understand how programs can disseminate information about the long-term benefits of breastfeeding and support parents in this decision.
– Iliana Lang
Sources: The Lancet
Child Poverty Indicators and What They Mean
On September 2000 at the Millennium Summit, world UN leaders decided to enact the UN Millennium Declaration, a document which asked the world community to meet 8 goals by 2015. As 2015 is upon us, many countries are struggling to meet every goal, but there is no denying that this commitment was a good benchmark for development. Due to the goal’s relative success and the apparent need for more time, many in the international community have begun to developed a new set of goals called sustainable development goals (SDGs), which will allow countries to progress in a mildly regimented fashion. In order to assure world leaders that these goals are being met, the committee has developed a set of indicators which will track different contries’ progression as it rises from poverty.
The first sustainable development goal aims to eradicate extreme poverty—indicated by families who live on less than $1.25 per day—for all people, everywhere, by the year 2030. The proposed indicator for families living in extreme poverty is the percentage of the population living on less than $1.25 a day, disaggregated by the age of the population. This allows the committee and the global community to effectively measure how many children are affected by extreme poverty, and thus take action against it.
Another sustainable development goal will work toward reducing the number of men, women and children living in poverty by any and all of its definitions throughout the world by at least half by 2030. The committee has proposed to indicate this poverty by monitoring the percentage of children (ages 0-17) living below the poverty line and the percentage of children living under multidimensional poverty. This is a lofty goal but there are several task forces and global initiatives that have been enacted to combat this type of poverty.
The global community is finally realizing the importance role children play in world progress. Poverty affects families throughout the world, even in developed countries such as the U.S., where 1 in 8 children go hungry every day. By focusing on children, society is creating a much stronger future; children are the future leaders and decision makers of our world, and by improving their standard of living and providing them with better educations, we can create a world of well-educated, caring individuals.
By introducing child poverty indicators, the global community has created a definitive line, which marks the division between poverty and extreme poverty. In enacting these methods of measurement, it will soon become easier to identify which nations require more assistance and what exactly needs to be done. The sheer existence of such indicators shows the international communities’ heightened awareness of the impact children will have on our societies and the importance of a healthy childhood.
The Millennium Development Goals were the first step in a long path led by the United Nations, and they have helped the global community progress immensely. If we focus on sustainable development and allow society to progress in a ways that benefit everyone, including the environment, we can create a much happier, healthier and caring world.
– Sumita Tellakat
Sources: UNICEF, UN Millennium Project
Photo: Poverties.org
India: Still The Most Insanitary Place on Earth?
According to the latest World Health Organization (WHO) data report, India is the number one country in terms of having the most catastrophic levels of outdoor air pollution. This is an issue that has not been met with proper treatment. What’s more, 13 out of the 20 most polluted cities in the world are located in India.
For decades, the issue has reportedly derived from a culmination of treacherous chemical particles; “smog” is included among them as the leading pollutant. However, a 2014 BBC News report by Shannti Dinnoo argues that the issue of unsanitary conditions probably stems from cultural causes.
As noted in Dinnoo’s findings, open defecation is a socially accepted daily ritual. When children learn how to walk and talk for the first time, their parents also teach them how to defecate out in the open, and that doing so is acceptable.
The normalized practice most frequently happens among financially-deprived families: toilets are luxuries usually only available to wealthy people. However, as was unearthed in an accompanying BBC News reading, it was found that these people fail to properly sanitize their toilets.
Last year, UNICEF used the phenomenon of public defecation to structure a theory in which the organization correlated the insanitary issue with the prevalence of malnutrition, which alters growth and immunity in children under the age of five.
Children are not the only sufferers of the extreme consequences caused by the horrendous air and hygiene issue.
As documented in Dinnoo’s BBC report, outdoor defecation places women at risk, because they are more likely to be in a susceptible state of sexual assault. This is especially concerning when one considers the rapid rate of rape crimes within the country.
Additionally, the lack of sanitation has potentially inflicted adverse effects among pregnant Indian women, where premature births and low birth weight are more likely to occur.
At the time, with minimal assistance in aiding India’s pollution issue, various individuals have spoken out to produce public awareness in encouraging Indian governmental powers to sustain quality air control. Mohammed Kamal Professor of Public Policy Rohini Pande, alongside University of Chicago collaborators, addressed the public a few months ago and strongly recommended the Indian government to enforce stricter regulations.
Other individuals stepping up to promote awareness include economist Michael Greenstone, who shared suggestions with Internet website vox.com on tactics India should follow, such as the proposal of an effective emission trading system alongside the idea of penalizing citizens who purposely pollute (a factor that is rarely enforced, let alone rarely considered).
On February 21, 2015, United States Secretary of State John Kerry confirmed the launch of a program called AirNow. This would monitor foreign countries’s air quality, specifically that of India, to assist foreign service officers and U.S. military personnel by providing them with information about the air they’re breathing in efforts to “mitigate some of the harmful impacts,” according to The Indian Express.
Already, a small form of action has made a difference for children between the ages of 11 and 15. On July 7, 2015, The Indian Express revealed that UN efforts in alleviating India’s climatic disaster have reduced open defecation by 25 percent.
This reduction has been attributed to the enforcement of stricter regulations and federal emission standards. Overall, people hope to improve respiratory functions for adolescents and young teenagers because that general age is considered the “critical period” of vital lung development.
– Jeff Varner
Sources: The Indian Express 1, BBC News 1, The Indian Express 2, Harvard Kennedy School, VOX, The New York Times, BBC News 2
Photo: Global Press Journal
Celebrities High-Five For UNICEF
According to UNICEF, almost one thousand children die every day worldwide because of the lack of clean water. Conditions are worsened for those without proper nutrition, immunizations, safety and infant health.
The #HighFiveIt campaign raises money to develop strategies to solve these issues as well as implement the plans created. UNICEF will also help to educate the areas that suffer from these problems with techniques that continue to improve upon the tactics that UNICEF will put in place.
In Canada, Karina LeBlanc, the Canadian Women’s National Team goalkeeper and UNICEF ambassador, helped start the campaign by high-fiving Christine Sinclair, the captain of Canada’s team.
UNICEF asks that supporters take part in #HighFiveIt by posting a photo or video of a high-five during a sporting match, tagging five friends in the post and donating to UNICEF.
Among the supporters are many celebrities who have pledged to help save lives of children in poor areas. Disney Channel stars Calum Worthy, Raini Rodriguez and Laura Marano are giving their high-fives for UNICEF, and so are Rico Rodriguez from “Modern Family” and Peter Mooney, Missy Peregrym, Priscilla Faia and Erin Karpluck from “Rookie Blue.”
In addition, several other Canadian and American politicians, athletes and celebrities are pledging to #HighFiveIt to save citizens in poor areas.
UNICEF Canada’s Chief Development Officer, Sharon Avery, said that she is very pleased with the support from these celebrities as their backing will draw a lot of attention to the cause.
“It’s wonderful to see our homegrown talent, along with several American celebrities, taking part in this campaign to save lives,” Avery said. “I’ve seen the impact of UNICEF’s work with children in Honduras and Dominica and am excited to have my passions — soccer and reaching children through UNICEF — come together with #HighFiveIt.”
Though their involvement was very important, celebrities were not the only people taking part in #HighFiveIt. 7,238 UNICEF fans took part in the Guinness World Record for the greatest number of people simultaneously giving a high-five. This event broke the previous record by 2,542 people.
With such a large number of supporters giving high-fives, UNICEF hopes to reach their goals. The organization’s website offers five different life-saving options to donate to, the first being “greatest gift.” If the donator chooses to give to “greatest gift,” the money will be presented to areas that need change the most.
“Children living in conflict and vulnerable situations will benefit from your generosity,” UNICEF said.
By selecting “infant health,” the donator will fund the implementation of baby-friendly hospitals, training of health-care workers and breastfeeding education for mothers. If the supporter chooses “vaccines,” the donation will be used to provide vital vaccinations for tetanus, polio, measles and other life-threatening diseases. By clicking on “nutrition,” the funding will go to efforts to end starvation and malnutrition, and with the selection of “water,” the donation will be used to create water-catchment devices for a better opportunity to provide clean water to developing areas.
Because UNICEF presents the chance of choosing to give directly to causes that the supporter prefers, the organization has created a more personal donation experience. That being said, each dollar the supporter gives to their choice source will be matched by UNICEF, up to two million dollars.
Celebrities and fans of UNICEF can potentially raise more than four million dollars with this promise. To join the cause and help save the lives of people in need, go to unicef.ca or search #HighFiveIt.
– Fallon Lineberger
Sources: Look to the Stars, UNICEF 1, UNICEF 2, UNICEF 3
Photo: Newswire
How Cell Phones are Helping Us Fight Ebola
Africa has experienced a boom in cell phone ownership in recent years, which has extended to West Africa. As a result, cell phones are providing patients and families of patients with services such as ebola hotlines. Cell phones also allow health workers to be paid electronically, allow clinics to flag when they’re low on supplies and allow individuals to resolve rumors of ebola by texting local radio stations.
Eric King, an innovation specialist who worked with USAID’s Disaster Assistance Response Team in Liberia, said, “among the technological tools that have amplified the Ebola response, arguably none has been more helpful than the mobile phone.”
And it’s not just helpful for individuals. Cell phone companies collect “call data records,” which manage caller identity and the time of the call, along with being able to identify the customer’s location. These records, held by CDRs, are highly valuable to epidemiologists.
But cell phones have been most valuable in fighting Ebola in the hands of health care workers. The mHero program uses information to bring together people making a difference in coordinating a response to this crisis.
The mHero program brings cell phones together with many services. These services include the iHRIS program, a human resource tracking service used within the health sector of 19 countries, along with UNICEF’s SMS platform and information sharing systems such as OpenHIE and DHIS 2.
The mHero programs bring all of this together to allow key text messages to be sent to heath workers internationally, even in remote areas where there is traditionally less access to cell phone service. Having access to this large database of information allows for messages to be targeted to health workers in relevant locations.
According to intrahealth, mHero is also useful to government officials, who can use it to conduct monitoring processes along with data analysis and surveys. The service, which launched in Liberia in September, represents perhaps a major victory in the fight against Ebola.
Information is power. Cell phones are an accessible technology which provide people worldwide with information. It should be no surprise, then, that cell phones are an incredible source of power in responding to the Ebola crisis.
– Andrew Michaels
Sources: Intrahealth, Harvard, The Economist, USAID
Photo: Empower Magazine
Beyoncé, Pearl Jam, More Set to Play MSNBC’s Global Citizen Festival
The concert, which will be held Saturday, September 6th in New York City’s Central Park, is a six-hour long show that will air for free on MSNBC’s website. MSNBC is estimating that over 60,000 people alone will visit the website on the day of the show.
“The Global Citizen Festival will channel the power of hundreds of thousands of global citizens, lending their voices to achieve policy and financial commitments that will shape the future,” Hugh Evans, CEO of the Global Poverty Project, told MSNBC.”
Attending the event in person is going to require a bit more participation than simply opening a website, however. Those interested in acquiring tickets to the show must complete five “Action Journeys,” which include calling the State Department and telling them to “commit 50 percent of the U.S foreign aid budget to the world’s poorest countries,” amongst other tasks.
The Global Citizen Festival is coinciding with the announcement of the UN’s new Global Goals program, which is seeking to eliminate global poverty by 2030. According to MSNBC, these goals “carry the promise of equal rights and opportunity for women and men: the promise to live a healthy and dignified life, the promise for every child to survive and thrive.”
Past incarnations of the Global Citizen Festival have proven to be successful. The Global Citizen Organization boasts over $18.3 million in cash donations since 2012.
“By making this call, we will show the U.S. administration that the world is watching and demand concrete solutions that will lead to the end of extreme poverty by 2030,” Evans added.
– Alexander Jones
Sources: Huffington Post, Newsbusters, MSNBC
Photo: Entertainment Weekly
One Direction Launches Anti-Poverty Campaign
They have named the initiative the Action/1D manifesto, and have asked their millions and millions of fans across the globe to contribute. Fans are encouraged to share powerful, creative pieces that will help raise awareness of our world’s most pressing issues.
The band’s initiative is part of the wider action/2015 campaign. This larger campaign is a global citizens movement founded on the idea that 2015 can be the pivotal year when the world finally sets out to tackle persisting global issues like poverty.
The boys stress that their initiative—and the campaign as a whole—will not see success unless World Leaders are successfully swayed. Change can only happen if the harnessed power of everyday people compels leaders to make long-term commitments.
Although they are speaking out to a primarily younger fan base, they still wholeheartedly believe in the power of everyday citizens. The band released a statement explaining, “Young people really do have the power to help end poverty, tackle inequality and to stop the dangerous climate change.”
In fact, the band believes that now is the time for members of the younger generation to take action, and create a united voice that is loud enough to reach the ears of leaders worldwide.
The band has released a collaborative video asking fans to get involved by posting videos and pictures depicting how they would “celebrate” the campaign’s victory. Another option for fans is to answer the question, “What would your ideal future look like?”
The plan is for fan-sourced content to be delivered in a single video depicting one strong, unified, socially driven message. Each band member will also release his own individual video in the months to come. Louis will reportedly be the first to do this, with plans to release his personalized video on July 13.
One Direction is the most recent high-profile group to join many other famous personalities in supporting the 2015 campaign. Emeritus Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Malala Yousafzai, Sir Richard Branson, Shakira, Ben Affleck, Bill and Melinda Gates, and Bono have already issued their campaign support.
When people in the global limelight choose to utilize their power to harness support for important issues like poverty, significant changes can be made. According to Declan Fahy, an associate professor at American University’s School of Communication, celebrities have the ability to “personify ideas and social issues.”
By showing the world how important issues like poverty, inequality, and climate change are to them, One Direction is encouraging their fans to adopt similar perspectives. By putting a face on these complex issues, famous people can make their audience feel more connected to the problem, and even mobilize them to take action.
As one of the biggest bands in the world, One Direction has the power to bring the most important global issues to the forefront. Especially by encouraging a younger generation to care about these issues, the band could help make huge strides in the worldwide fight against poverty.
– Sarah Bernard
Sources: Daily Star (UK), Think Progress
Photo: Cambio
Newly Formed “Sports & Rights Alliance” Advocacy Group
The Sports & Rights Alliance (SRA) is a newly formed coalition of NGO’s focused around preserving human rights in relation to global sporting events. The list of issues the SRA advocates for includes, but is not limited to: ending citizen displacement from sport infrastructure, imprisoning protesters, exploitation of workers, unethical bidding practices and environmental destruction.
The SRA is composed of various international NGO’s such as Amnesty International, FIFPro – World Players’ Union, Football Supporters Europe, Human Rights Watch, the International Trade Union Confederation, Supporters Direct Europe, Greenpeace, Transparency International Germany and Terre des Hommes.
This past February, the SRA penned a letter to the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stressing an adherence to the principles regarding the 2020 and 2024 games. The approved standards mandated by the International Labor Organization was a point of emphasis in addition to increased oversight and inspections for human rights conditions. For the bidding process, the letter requested robust efforts to maintain and enforce ethical business and anti-corruption in choosing a host city.
The IOC met this past February in Brazil to discuss “Agenda 2020,” the strategic outline for the future of the Olympics, which was passed by the committee in December of 2014. The closing of bid registration for the 2024 Olympic games is set for September of 2015 so the timing is most appropriate.
Many recent international games have come under intense scrutiny for similar violations. Free speech issues and poor treatment of their LGBT community has cast many questions and doubts regarding Russia’s selection as 2018 World Cup host. The 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics were tarnished due exploitation of workers, suppression of free speech and corruption. The SRA cites these as examples of a divergence from what international sport and competition should stand for and symbolize.
Additionally, the inaugural European Games are currently being held in Baku, Azerbaijan causing concern and objection throughout the continent. The country has a questionable human rights record and in recent months, government protesters, human rights advocates and international journalists have been detained and imprisoned on inflated charges. This causes great concern for the international community and for Europe in particular.
Another letter written to the President of the European Olympic Committee stressed the immediate and unconditional release of all current activists and journalists who are imprisoned. Furthermore, the letter called for an end to ongoing intimidations, detainments and persecutions of the aforementioned individuals.
FIFA’s selection of Qatar as the 2022 World Cup host has also been met with serious concern and criticism. In lieu of a pre-existing Football infrastructure, the country has relied upon migrant laborers to build multiple stadiums to host the Cup. This arrangement of labor is common throughout the Arabic Peninsula and known as the “kafala” system and is likened to modern day slavery.
FIFA has been inconsistent in their actions to condemn working conditions. The organization has stated their concern for the workers welfare, but also deny responsibility for their treatment. Referring to the government contractors, FIFA President Sepp Blatter, is quoted as saying “they are responsible for their workers.”
Before the FIFA Presidency election, the SRA wrote to President Sepp Blatter and his three opponents citing their grave concern for the condition of the workers. The letter included a questionnaire about their views on the current state of human rights in their sport. It also called for the victor in the election to take action to rectify any violations in the first 100 days of their presidency.
The SRA has proven to quickly become a powerful voice in international sports relations and gathered a following through their advocate efforts. Regarding the allegiance to human rights principles, the SRA have consistently ended their letters by saying, “All these standards should not be based on goodwill, but must be non-negotiable and absolutely binding for all stakeholders.”
– The Borgen Project
Sources: The Globe And Mail, Human Rights Watch 1, Human Rights Watch 2, The Guardian
Photo: The Guardian