Sport
Introducing Project CARE
Project CARE (Census of Athlete Rights Experiences) is a two-year project aiming to ensure that the rights of child athletes are promoted and protected throughout world sport. The project involves a pilot study of the childhood experiences in organised sport of professional athletes affiliated with the World Players Association. The study will help us capture rights experiences, provide a benchmark against which future progress can be tracked, and develop a standard tool to measure this progress.
Our Team
This is a collaboration between the World Players Association and Loughborough University.
Gigi Alford leads the Sport and Human Rights strategy at UNI Global Union’s World Players Association. She also coordinates the Sport & Rights Alliance, a global coalition of leading NGOs, sports organizations, and trade unions, which she represents on the interim governance committee of the new Geneva-based Centre for Sport and Human Rights. Previously, Gigi served in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour, where she facilitated the first Sporting Chance Forum. gigi.alford@uniglobalunion.org / +41 (0)22 365 2190
Andrea Florence is a human rights lawyer, campaigner and the Child Athlete Wellbeing and Protection Officer at UNI Global Union’s World Players. Prior to joining WPA, Andrea worked as Campaigns and Communications Coordinator at Amnesty International Brazil and led the Children Win campaign at Terre des Hommes. andrea.worldplayers@gmail.com / +55 11 98420 0025
Dr Daniel Rhind is a Chartered Psychologist and a Reader in Psychology at Loughborough University. His research focuses on how children’s rights can be protected in, around and through sport. Daniel’s research has been funded by the European Commission, Commonwealth Secretariat, Oak Foundation, the Daiwa Foundation, International Inspiration, the Football Association, the Rugby Football Union, the International Tennis Federation and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. His most recent research was the foundation of the recently launched International Safeguards for Children in Sport. D.J.A.Rhind@lboro.ac.uk / +44(0)1509 223002
Our purpose
The project is ultimately about making recommendations to make sport safer for children by identifying best practices and minimum standards that sport governing bodies, governments, parents, athletes, and everyone involved with youth sport must follow. We call it Project CARE because it stands for Census of Athlete Rights Experiences, but also ‘care’ evokes the kind of duty that society has to its children and really each person should have to each child. World Players believes sport should become a symbol and a beacon for this.
The survey will be developed through a process of stakeholder consultation with experts, practitioners, survivors, and others to reflect the rights outlined in the World Players Universal Declaration of Player Rights (UDPR), the World Players Declaration on Safeguarding the Rights of Child Athletes, and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
Further Reading
- World Players statement from Executive Director Brendan Schwab on safeguarding the rights of child athletes: Watch video
- Equal Times article by World Players Director of Sport and Human Rights, Gigi Alford: “Child athletes lose big on lagging rights in sport”
- World Players Declaration on Safeguarding the Rights of Child Athletes: Full text and Infographic
- World Players media statement: “Prepare, Empower, Support: Player development & wellbeing conference tackles career transitions”
- World Players media statement: “FIFA moves closer to global standards on child protection and wellbeing, says World Players Association”
- AthletesCAN, a World Players Association associate affiliate, and University of Toronto study: Prevalence of Maltreatment among Current and Former National Team Athletes in Canada
- Child Rights International Network guest article from Play the Game/Danish Institute for Sports Studies on need for more research on childhood experiences in sport: "Victims or winners: Why children’s rights should be the next big issue for sport"