Mega-sporting events and children’s rights and interests – towards a better future

Dowse, S.; Powell, Sacha; Weed, Mike

doi:10.1080/02614367.2017.1347698

Cited by 31 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 18 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Outside of the sporting context itself, there is also evidence of child labour and trafficking infringements during the planning and delivery of MSEs (Brackenridge et al, 2012). According to Dowse et al (2018), the invisibility of children within MSE hosting processes suggests that current conceptualisations of the social potential of event hosting are incomplete, representing a significant omission that contributes to the social irresponsibility of many hosting projects. It also raises the question of whose responsibility it is to ensure that the child is adequately represented and provided for in the planning and delivery stages of MSEs.…”

Section: Child Rights and Mega Sport Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While these child rights principles have been welcomed (Dowse et al, 2018) and the IOCs awareness of human rights risks has improved in recent years (Grell, 2018), it is necessary to explore in depth the extent to which Olympic Games organisers have enshrined child rights protection measures in their planning and delivery processes. The remainder of this article focuses on the case of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.…”

Section: Child Rights and Mega Sport Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Young people are often heralded as the main beneficiaries of the inspirational effects of the Olympic Games. However, given the growing evidence of child rights infringements related to the planning and delivery of MSEs, Dowse et al (2018) suggest that more needs to be done to secure the active involvement of children in the planning phase if Lundy's (2007) ambition for space, voice, audience and influence is to be realised.…”

Section: Child Participation and The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Gamesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, like other rights conventions, there is inconsistency in its implementation and the general commitments made by signatories are rarely specific enough to address all eventualities. So, while the UNCRC states that host nations should consider the rights of the child when bidding, planning for, and delivering their MSEs, evidence suggests that insufficient consideration is given to child rights in policies guiding the Games (Caudwell and McGee, 2018;Dowse et al, 2018). In practise, despite long-standing international agreements on the importance of child rights, child protection measures have not until recently been a criterion for either bidding or social legacy planning for most MSEs, often rendering children invisible in this process (Brackenridge et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Embedding Child Rights Principles and Practises in Mega Sport Event Planning

Oluwaseyi

McGillivray

Carnicelli

et al. 2021

Front. Sports Act. Living

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Recently, there has been growing concern about the lack of intentionality of mega sport event (MSE) organisers in ensuring that child rights are adequately respected, protected and promoted before, during, and after the events take place. In the context of the summer Olympic Games, reported child rights infringements have been on the rise, both in relation to abuse in sport itself and the negative consequences associated with planning and delivering the Games. In response to reports of child rights infringements, a coalition of actors, including non-governmental and civil society organisations have sought to pressure event owners and organisers to strengthen protections in the planning and delivery of their events. To date, however, child rights commitments have not been fully embedded in policies and principles guiding the planning and delivery of the Olympic Games. In this article, we explore the field of child rights in the context of the Olympic Games, focusing on a case study of the Tokyo 2020 edition. Drawing on documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews with Tokyo 2020 stakeholders and affiliates, detailed appraisal of the planning process was undertaken. Findings show that while the Japanese authorities have signed up to international child rights conventions and embedded some child participation strategies in Games-related activity, there was little evidence that Tokyo 2020 organisers had developed or implemented robust policies, principles or practises to respect, protect and promote child rights in Games planning. This absence, we argue, is because there was no requirement to embed child rights commitments during the bidding or planning phases, as the IOC had yet to enshrine human rights in its host city contract when the Games were first awarded to Tokyo. In conclusion, we argue that it is imperative the IOC embeds child rights principles and protocols in the bidding and planning processes to ensure that the risks to children are foregrounded and acted upon by host cities and their partners, elevating human rights to a position equal to other Games requirements. This study is of international significance as the evidence will aid future host city bidders to ensure children's rights are embedded in MSE policies for each nation.

show abstract

Section: Child Rights and Mega Sport Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Child Rights and Mega Sport Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Child Participation and The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Gamesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Embedding Child Rights Principles and Practises in Mega Sport Event Planning

Oluwaseyi

McGillivray

Carnicelli

et al. 2021

Front. Sports Act. Living

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In recent years there have been numerous reports and media footage of harm linked to event delivery processes and associated protest (Broudehoux, 2012;Lamond and Spracklen, 2014). There are continuing debates about the relationship between human rights, social justice issues and events, for example, controversies surrounding the rights of migrant workers in Qatar (2022) and questions of gay rights in Russia (2014) to name a few (see Dowse, Powell & Weed, 2017). It is also possible that the enhanced profile of these issues is a feature of the relocation of mega-events to developing countries.…”

Section: Ethical Concerns For the Impacts Of Hostingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sport mega-events, the ‘non-West’ and the ethics of event hosting

Dowse¹,

Fletcher²

2020

Ethical Concerns in Sport Governance

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sport mega-events, the non-West and the ethics of event hostingEvents and sports events are perceived as having the potential to contribute to a number of benefits for the host country and its communities. However, mega sports events in particular are also known for their darker side. These consequences flow from the scale and complexity of the event, and the logistics of delivering what is effectively a national mega-project. The socio-political and economic environment of the host is an important consideration for both prospective hosts and event owners when allocating hosting rights. It is therefore, unsurprising that concerns have been raised over the relatively recent relocation of events to developing countries which, by their nature, frequently lack the economic, political and social stability of the traditional industrialized host. Developing nations are less affluent and arguably less prepared to deliver large scale sports events than developed nations. Within developing contexts the cost of hosting and risk of failure is likely to be far higher than for events held in the developed world. Therefore, this paper asks, 'are governing bodies, when equipped with this knowledge, ethically obliged to withhold hosting rights from developing countries?' The paper argues that denying sovereign States the right to make their own decisions would appear to compound the disadvantaged status of countries that mega-event hosting is perceived to address. It would also reinforce the positioning of countries as subordinate and subject to a form of neo-colonial control. Indeed, despite laudable claims, the primary interest of the event owners is the delivery of an event, meaning that considerations of individual national contexts are largely irrelevant to any award. The paper contends that event hostsparticularly those in the developing world -are potentially vulnerable to exploitation by the event owner.

show abstract

Olympic Planning, Profit, and Participation: Towards a Children’s rights-based Approach to Sport mega-event Research?

Byrne

Ludvigsen

2022

Int J Sociol Leis

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

It is well-established that sport mega-events remain highly relevant sites of enquiry for sociologists of leisure. Whereas sport mega-events are associated with a range of diverse and (un-)intended socio-spatial impacts, they can also have transformative impacts on children and young people. Against this backdrop, this article discusses the inter-relationship between sport mega-events and young people. By focusing predominantly on Olympic planning, participation and profits – which we call the ‘3Ps’ – we argue that researchers may turn towards research methodologies that are underpinned by children’s rights principles and which increasingly voice the perceptions of children and young people on the social impacts of sport mega-events. At the same time, we also reflect on exactly how children’s rights-based methodologies in this context can push the boundaries of the sociology of leisure, events and sport. In this sense, we contend that this article makes an important contribution to the academic work on the nexus between sport mega-events and young people and to our understanding of mega-events’ social costs.

show abstract

Mega-sporting events and children’s rights and interests – towards a better future

Abstract: Mega-sporting events and children's rights and interests -towards a better future. Leisure Studies.

Cited by 31 publications

References 18 publications

Embedding Child Rights Principles and Practises in Mega Sport Event Planning

Embedding Child Rights Principles and Practises in Mega Sport Event Planning

Sport mega-events, the ‘non-West’ and the ethics of event hosting

Olympic Planning, Profit, and Participation: Towards a Children’s rights-based Approach to Sport mega-event Research?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About