Going for gold or lagging behind? Evaluating Australian sporting organisations’ work to manage their modern slavery risks
Disclaimer: This blog does not constitute legal advice and cannot be relied on as such.
As we enjoy the sporting feats of the 2024 Olympics, the excitement in the air is widely felt across the world including Australia. Yet, beyond debates of who is going to take home the gold medals, lies a conversation that goes beyond the boundaries of the pool, field or court – one that intersects the worlds of sport and human rights.
There are many intersections between sports and human rights. Sport transcends borders, languages, and cultures. It has the power to unite people and advance human rights. Yet the delivery of sporting events of all shapes and sizes can also bring significant human rights challenges. From grassroots organisations to global mega-sporting events, the potential adverse impacts of sporting events on human rights is wide reaching and there is growing momentum from multiple stakeholder groups for these risks to be identified and managed.
The global sporting community is increasingly recognising its responsibility to respect human rights and taking steps to integrate human rights considerations into their operations. For example, the International Olympic Committee has reported that it is implementing its Strategic Framework for Human Rights, while Commonwealth member countries unanimously adopted a Consensus Statement on Promoting Human Rights in and through Sport in 2020. In addition, as part of the tournament bidding process, FIFA also now requires host countries to commit to respecting the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). The UNGPs are the recognised global standard for preventing and addressing business-related human rights harm. Given the commercial nature of their activities and relationships, for example through procurement and sponsorship activities, there is now recognition that the UNGPs apply to sporting bodies and organisations.
An important human rights issue requiring attention from the sporting community, both in Australia and around the world, is the effective management of modern slavery risks throughout sporting organisations’ operations and supply chains. Modern slavery refers to actions that take away someone’s freedom for the purposes of exploitation and includes forced labour, human trafficking, and the worst forms of child labour.
Modern slavery risks can be present at all stages of the sporting value chain. Key risks can range from the treatment of workers building stadiums (especially in some instances particularly vulnerable or at risk groups like migrant workers), and the reported use of child labour to manufacture sporting equipment to the working conditions of service providers including cleaners, catering staff and security guards at events in some countries. Investment activity by sporting organisations and deals with sponsors can also pose modern slavery and broader human rights risks. For example, a sponsorship deal may be secured with an apparel company whose goods are alleged to be manufactured using exploitative practices.
In this context, it is vital that sporting organisations demonstrate respect for human rights by managing these modern slavery risks in line with the expectations set out in the UNGPs. This means that they should have policies and processes in place to both prevent and address any involvement they may have in modern slavery through their own activities and business relationships including their suppliers. They should also make sure that they are complying with relevant laws in the countries where they are operating.
In Australia, the Commonwealth Modern Slavery Act 2018 (MSA) requires a broad range of organisations with an annual consolidated revenue of at least AUD$100 million to report annually on their modern slavery risks and the actions they are taking to prevent and address them. This includes sporting organisations meeting this revenue threshold. The Australian Government is currently considering a recommendation from the recent statutory review of the Modern Slavery Act to reduce the reporting threshold from AUD$100 million to AUD$50 million, which would further increase the number of sporting organisations covered by the law.
In seeking to understand more about how Australian sporting organisations are approaching modern slavery risk management, we analysed modern slavery statements from eighteen Australian sporting organisations and governing bodies across seven sporting codes that publicly report under the MSA.* Our analysis, which was based on the MSA’s mandatory reporting criteria, found that while some Australian sporting organisations appear to be taking concrete steps to respect human rights in areas such as diversity and inclusion, many of these organisations appear to be taking limited steps to identify, manage and report on modern slavery risks. Rather than ‘stepping up to the plate’ there is a risk that Australian sporting organisations have ‘taken their eye off the ball’ when it comes to their modern slavery responses (a sports blog would be incomplete without a few sport-related puns). Based on our analysis, we’ve identified below six key trends from these organisations’ modern slavery statements, including practical recommendations for improvement.
Going forward, external stakeholders’ (including sponsors, spectators, civil society organisations including those representing athletes, international federations and governing bodies, and governments) scrutiny of the Australian sporting community’s response to human rights risks including modern slavery is likely to further increase. For example, international sporting federations may place greater expectations on host organisations around how they will identify and address adverse human rights impacts including modern slavery, while sponsors and other business partners may ask questions as part of their own modern slavery risk management. The Australian Government has also committed to introducing penalties for non-compliance with the MSA, which could lead to greater scrutiny of whether all relevant sporting organisations are reporting under the legislation. This additional attention may also lead to increased examination of the quality of sporting organisations’ modern slavery statements. The practical recommendations included in the following graphic aim to assist sporting organisations in Australia and globally to kick goals both on and off the field (this is the last pun, we promise).
* Our analysis was based on the MSA’s mandatory reporting criteria. The statements were identified through a key word search on the Australian Government’s Modern Slavery Statements Register. The statements reviewed may not capture all sporting organisations that report under the MSA.