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News & Events Event Reports

Sixth Global Summit: Safeguarding Human Rights in the Context of Mega-Sporting Events

Publication Date:
22/01/2026
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FIFA World Cup 2026mega-sporting eventsSafeguarding Human RightsSixth Global SummitToronto

— 11 minutes reading time

This report provides a summary of discussions during the session and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Strong Cities Network Management Unit, Strong Cities members, event sponsors or participants.

Introduction

On 9 – 11 December 2025, the Strong Cities Network held its Sixth Global Summit in Toronto (Canada), bringing together more than 300 representatives of local governments, national governments, civil society organisations, academia, the private sector and international organisations. This included nearly 60 mayors and governors, as well as 110 other local government officials from 100 cities and 42 countries. Under the theme Stronger Together: Forging Safer, Connected, Thriving Cities in a Changing World, the Summit provided a platform for city leaders to share practical and innovative solutions to prevent and respond to hate, extremism and polarisation, and build safer, more resilient and more inclusive communities.

The Summit agenda included a hybrid plenary session on Safeguarding Human Rights in the Context of Mega-Sporting Events: Lessons for and from Host Cities Ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026™, providing a selection of host cities with the opportunity to share how they are mitigating risks of human trafficking in the lead-up to the World Cup. The session took place in the context of a Strong Cities partnership with FIFA26 US Inc. and New Paradigm Labs to facilitate a series of virtual roundtables that convened the host cities of the FIFA World Cup 2026™, federal governments and private and civil society partners to discuss lessons learned and good practices for preventing and responding to human trafficking.

The plenary panel was complemented by a parallel session on Safeguarding Human Rights during Mega-Sporting Events, which opened the conversation into a broader, global discussion about human rights, public safety, social cohesion and mega-sporting events.

Featured Speakers – Plenary Session: Safeguarding Human Rights in the Context of Mega-Sporting Events: Lessons for and from Host Cities Ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026™

Featured Speakers – Parallel Session: Safeguarding Human Rights during Mega-Sporting Events

Key Takeaways

  1. Preparing for mega-sporting and other large events requires multi-actor collaboration long before the event actually takes place.
  2. Cities should invest in targeted, multilingual and multi-modal awareness and risk-detection strategies, tapping into community-based organisations to ensure accessible awareness-raising efforts that resonate with community members.
  3. Cities should consider mega-sporting events as an opportunity to invest in and improve their counter-trafficking and other human rights safeguarding measures for the long-term (rather than just for the event(s) they are hosting).
  4. Local governments should leverage mega-sporting events to build relationships among sports, human rights and community safety organisations and initiatives.
  5. Cities and their partners should consult and meaningfully include victims and survivors of trafficking and other human rights infringements in the design and delivery of relevant safeguarding efforts.

Key Themes 

1. Preparation and Proactivity are Crucial to Safeguarding Human Rights during Mega-Sporting Events

Participants highlighted the importance of investing early in relationship-building and multi-actor coordination, agreeing that mega-sporting events require proactive community engagement and partnerships and collaborations that are developed well-in advance of the events themselves.

Victoria Montserrat Hidalgo Gallardo, Host City Officer, Guadalajara Host Committee, FIFA World Cup 2026™ (Mexico), shared how Guadalajara is investing in multi-actor relationship-building and collaboration in the lead-up to the World Cup. Like the other host cities of the upcoming World Cup, Guadalajara set up a Host City Committee to lead preparations and management of hosting World Cup matches. To foster multi-actor collaboration, the Committee has organised itself into 12 working groups, covering topics ranging from security to mobility, tourism, culture, human rights, sustainability and more. Each group comprises multidisciplinary experts and has the mandate to take clear actions in line with the Host City Committee’s broader World Cup strategy. She added that the Human Rights Working Group, which oversees counter-trafficking and other safeguarding measures, involves more than 35 government agencies, civil society experts and community representatives, including from indigenous, migrant and other historically marginalised communities. By establishing this structure proactively, the Working Group is able to identify and address vulnerabilities that may be exacerbated by the World Cup (and the influx of thousands of spectators) and deliver community-informed anti-trafficking and other safeguarding measures accordingly. Further, the Working Group has a dedicated pillar on institutional coordination, to ensure all institutions know their roles, actions and service responsibilities well in advance of the World Cup arriving in the city.

Similarly, JP Smith, Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, City of Cape Town in South Africa, which hosted the FIFA World Cup 2010, shared that the City of Cape Town started preparing to be a host city several years before the World Cup actually started, noting how difficult it can be to coordinate across different levels of government and that it is therefore crucial to start building national-provincial-local relationships as early as possible. He stated that “if you have to start organising a major event, you not only need the appropriate infrastructure to be established, but it needs to be humming along nicely, with people understanding their roles and responsibilities, and having had opportunities to put them into practice” (i.e., through simulations and table-top exercises).

2. Cities Should Consider Mega-Sporting Events as an Opportunity to Create Long-Term Change and Impact

Participants also agreed that mega-sporting events are an opportunity for long-term impact that extends beyond the period of being a host city. For example, Andrea Jung, Human Rights Advisor, FIFA World Cup 2026 Vancouver™ Host City Committee, City of Vancouver (British Columbia, Canada) shared that a nationwide inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls resulted in 231 calls for justice to be implemented by federal, provincial and local governments, as well as territories and civil society. She added that the energy, attention (and pressure) of being a FIFA World Cup host city provides an opportunity to reinvigorate existing mandates and responsibilities, such as the implementation of the 231 calls for justice, many of which relate to trafficking and other human rights concerns that may be exacerbated during the World Cup.

Similarly, Zenia Wadhwani, Director of Community Resources, Social Development Division, Co-Chair of Human Rights, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism Program Advisory Body, City of Toronto (Ontario, Canada) shared that the safeguarding challenges cities face during mega-sporting events exist well beyond the specific context of those events: “they are pre-existing issues that will be there long after these games come and go”. She added that it is therefore important to “build on work already started”, using the matches as an opportunity to improve upon initiatives that existed before and will continue to exist after the World Cup.

In Morocco, the City of Marrakech, which is preparing for the FIFA World Cup 2030, which will be hosted by Morocco, Spain and Portugal, tries to ensure all mega events it hosts have long-term benefits for the local community. Mohamed Idrissi, First Deputy Mayor of Marrakech, stated he sees the World Cup as a long-term investment, with the City eager to build a legacy of hospitality, safety and security as a host city, which he said would only inspire more tourism and economic prosperity long after the World Cup finishes.

Randy Duque, Deputy Director, Commission on Human Relations, Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, United States) added that in Philadelphia, “we have these plans and networks [already] in place to work on these issues” and that during a mega-sporting event, it’s about “tailoring these existing plans and networks to the event… plugging into existing plans of action and [where necessary] creating complementary new initiatives”.

Sabrina Razack, Senior Project Lead, Centre for Sport and Human Rights, Toronto, further underscored the importance of considering legacy and long-term impact, stating that mega-sporting events are an opportunity to invest in the nexus between human rights, safety and sports at a local level. She stated that this is an outcome of what she’s seeing in Toronto, with local organisations that work in child protection or on racial abuse, discrimination, for example, all coming together and connecting on the topic of sport as the City seeks to implement the safeguarding measures it is mandated to as a host city of the World Cup. This fosters interinstitutional relationships that didn’t necessarily exist before but that will continue to exist after (particularly if local governments provide a platform to or otherwise help with sustaining such relationships) and can thus be seen as a legacy of being a host city.     

3. Cities Should Tap into Community-Based Partners and Survivors as They Design and Deliver Human Rights Safeguarding Efforts

There was consensus that local governments must identify and tap into community-based partners, community leaders and survivors (i.e., of trafficking and other human rights safeguarding issues) as they design and deliver relevant interventions. 

In Philadelphia, Randy Duque shared that the local government works closely with communities to “ensure that whatever we plan and do is really relevant and impactful for our communities”. He provided the specific example of messaging, stating that communications campaigns around human rights issues must be delivered using media and language that resonates and is accessible to the diversity of a city’s residents, and that local partners are an excellent resource with which to achieve that. They can help ensure messaging reaches the most marginalised communities and help overcome barriers of trust (i.e., in local government) that may otherwise affect how well a message or communication campaign lands.

On the topic of awareness-raising, Minal Davis, CEO, The HeneKom Group (United States), which is currently working with two World Cup host cities in the US, also emphasised the importance of leveraging community-based organisations but making sure they are given the agency to contextualise messaging so it aligns with their mission and usual communications and outreach tactics. Otherwise, it may feel out of place, “feel forced” and not be received as well by the beneficiaries of such organisations.

Sasha Larkin, Director of Intelligence & C4, FIFA26 US Inc. added that, in addition to community partners, cities must involve victims in the design and delivery of relevant programmes, stating that “[they] will really help shape your planning, policy and procedure in a way that makes a difference” and that they must be consulted from the design stages rather than just during implementation.

Next Steps

The sessions provided an opportunity for participants to discuss how local governments can prepare for mega-sporting events with a focus on safeguarding human rights and social cohesion. While the plenary session focused on host cities of the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2026™ and how they are preparing for what is one of the biggest sporting events in the world, the parallel session provided a platform for discussion on the broader nexus of human rights, social cohesion and sports, and the role of local governments preparing for any type of mega-sporting event.

Key next steps include:

Additional Resources

Recent Strong Cities policy briefs and resources:

Donors & Partners

The Sixth Global Summit was co-hosted with the City of Toronto and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, and delivered with generous support from the Government of Canada, The Fourth Freedom Forum, The Toronto Foundation and Charities Aid Foundation.

Contact Information 

For more information about the Sixth Global Summit or the Strong Cities Network, please contact [email protected].

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