With a new report, UNESCO calls for safer sport: the voices of victims must move to the center of the rules
With the publication of the report Toward Safe Sport: Policy Recommendations from People Impacted by Violence in Sport, UNESCO has opened a new phase of the debate on safety in sport, a topic that is increasingly being seen less as an internal matter for sports federations and more as an issue of human rights, public policy and institutional responsibility. The document was prepared in cooperation with the Sport & Rights Alliance, a network of organizations dealing with human rights in sport, and UNESCO states that survivors, whistleblowers, advocates, witnesses and other people directly affected by violence in the sports environment took part in its development. The report was presented on June 15, 2026, during a regular session of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Committee for Physical Education and Sport, known by the acronym CIGEPS, and was publicly released on June 17, 2026.
The central message of the document is that sport cannot be safe if protection rules are drafted without those who have most directly felt the consequences of abuse, violence, intimidation or institutional silence. According to UNESCO, many people affected by violence in sport still remain outside decision-making processes, even though their experiences can show exactly where systems fail, why victims hesitate to report abuse and what kind of support they need after reporting. Such an approach moves the debate beyond the formal existence of rulebooks and seeks an answer to a more important question: do protection mechanisms work in practice.
Safety is no longer a side issue of the sports system
UNESCO places the report within the broader process of developing Global Policy Standards for inclusive, equitable and safe sport and physical education. These standards should provide Member States with a common framework for preventing violence, protecting athletes, handling reports and measuring the accountability of sports organizations. According to UNESCO's announcement, the aim is not to create yet another declarative document, but to develop guidelines that can be applied in different sports systems, from school and recreational sport to professional competitions.
The issue of safe sport gained a stronger international political framework after the MINEPS VII conference, held in Baku from June 26 to 29, 2023. According to UNESCO, ministers and senior officials responsible for sport from more than 110 countries then recognized safety as a shared priority of the sport and physical education system. UNESCO subsequently launched a series of consultations with governments, sports organizations, civil society, researchers, athletes and United Nations bodies, and the new report represents one of the most concrete results of that process.
In the background is a broader understanding of sport as a right, not only as a competitive or commercial activity. UNESCO's International Charter of Physical Education, Physical Activity and Sport states that the practice of physical education, physical activity and sport is a fundamental right of all people. If access to sport is a right, then safety, dignity and protection from violence cannot be an addition to the system, but a condition without which sport does not fulfill its public and social role.
Data show the depth of the problem
UNESCO warns that responses to violence in sport remain fragmented and differ from country to country and from sport to sport. According to the announcement by UNESCO and the Sport & Rights Alliance, greater awareness of abuse has not automatically led to comparable definitions, reliable data and coordinated mechanisms for prevention, reporting, response, protection and accountability. This means that an athlete in one system may have access to independent reporting, psychological support and a clear procedure, while in another system a report may end up with the same organization against which the complaint is directed.
The data cited by UNESCO further explain why the topic of safe sport can no longer be treated as an exception or a series of isolated cases. According to the World Players Association, 21 percent of female athletes and 11 percent of male athletes experienced at least one form of sexual abuse in sport during childhood. The same source in the 2021 CARE report states that more than half of surveyed elite athletes reported emotional abuse at least once during childhood in sport, while approximately one in three reported physical abuse during training or competition.
Preliminary findings from UNESCO's first global survey of sports policies show the difference between formal programs and the real capacity of systems to monitor cases of violence. According to UNESCO, 77 percent of responding countries state that they provide safeguarding training programs, but only 18 percent report having systems for collecting, analyzing and reporting criminal or judicial data related to cases of violence in sport. This gap points to a problem that often appears in sports systems: education exists, but without independent procedures, data and outcome monitoring, it is difficult to know whether it reduces the real risk to athletes.
Victims and whistleblowers as expert interlocutors, not only as witnesses
One of the key novelties of the report is the way it treats the experience of people affected by violence. UNESCO and the Sport & Rights Alliance do not describe survivors only as sources of testimony, but as people who can identify the blind spots of systems and help draft rules that can be implemented. According to the report, survivors and whistleblowers can provide important insights into why people do not report violence, what happens after a report, when trust in institutions is lost and what types of support are missing.
The consultation process had two phases. According to UNESCO, the first phase was an online survey involving 138 people from 24 countries and 17 sports. The second phase brought together 10 people with direct experience of violence from eight countries and seven sports for a focus discussion at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. Participants, UNESCO states, consistently emphasized that survivors must not be seen only as people who confirm that harm occurred, but as partners who can help identify obstacles and improve the implementation of policies.
Such a consultation model is particularly important in sport, where power relations are often extremely unequal. Coaches, doctors, officials, clubs, federations and sponsors can have a major influence on athletes' careers, especially those of young, underage or economically dependent competitors. In such an environment, reporting violence can mean for the victim the risk of losing a place on the team, stigmatization, retaliation or the end of a career. That is why UNESCO's emphasis on trust, independence and protection of those who report is not a technical addition, but a precondition for reporting systems to be used at all.
What the recommendations ask of governments and sports organizations
According to UNESCO, consultation participants expressed strong support for the draft global standards. Ninety percent of participants rated the standards as useful, 80 percent believe they can help harmonize approaches among states and organizations, and 76 percent believe they can strengthen the impact of policies. At the same time, they requested further clarification of key terms and stronger implementation mechanisms, which shows that support for a general framework does not mean giving up demands for precise and binding procedures.
Among the most important recommendations are clearer definitions of safeguarding, safe sport and violence, stronger implementation guidelines, independent oversight and accountability mechanisms, transparent reporting and case management systems, protection of whistleblowers and people who report violence, and survivor-centered approaches based on an understanding of trauma. These recommendations target precisely those parts of the system where reports are often lost: unclear competences, closed internal procedures, fear of retaliation and a lack of follow-up on what happened after a report.
UNESCO's announcement especially emphasizes that the existence of rulebooks in itself does not guarantee a safe environment. Emily Cameron-Blake, director of Global Sports Policy Ltd and a member of UNESCO's Global Task Force on Safe Sport, warned during the CIGEPS session that there are countries with detailed codes but without independent case management, as well as systems in which reporting hotlines lead back to the federation against which the report is being filed. In her assessment, monitoring, evaluation, data collection and accountability are necessary so that governments know whether policies work in reality, not only on paper.
Protection must extend beyond elite sport
Although cases of abuse are most often seen globally through major scandals in elite sport, UNESCO's approach covers a much broader ecosystem. Safe sport includes children in clubs and schools, recreational participants, persons with disabilities, women and girls, young athletes in academies, fans, coaches, referees, medical staff and other people participating in sports activities. According to UNESCO, women and girls, persons with disabilities and other groups often face increased and interconnected risks, which means that protection policies must take into account age, gender, disability, migration status, racism, economic position and other circumstances.
Such an approach changes the way sports organizations are called to account. It is not enough to react only when a case becomes a public scandal or when there is a criminal proceeding. A safe sport system must have prevention, mandatory education, checks of people who work with children and vulnerable groups, clear reporting procedures, independent handling of cases, protection of those who report, access to psychological and legal support, and publicly available data on how procedures are resolved. Without these elements, athletes may remain in a system that demands silence from them in the name of loyalty to the club, national team or sport.
The report also points to the problem of trust. If athletes believe that a report will be returned to the person or institution that has an interest in protecting the organization's reputation, the likelihood of reporting will be lower. If those who report fear exclusion, loss of contract, public attack or legal pressure, formal reporting channels remain a dead letter. That is why recommendations on independent oversight and protection of whistleblowers have a broader significance than administrative procedures: they determine whether victims will assess that it is safe to speak at all.
Global standards as a test for sports institutions
UNESCO states that the findings of the consultation have already influenced revisions of the Global Standards, especially Standard 10, which concerns safe sport and safe implementation. This means that the experiences of affected people were not collected only as a symbolic gesture, but as material that changes the text of future guidelines. According to an earlier UNESCO announcement, the final draft of the global standards should be presented to Member States at the MINEPS VIII conference in 2027, opening the way toward broader international alignment.
For governments, the key question will be whether they will turn global guidelines into national policies, laws, supervisory bodies and funded programs. For sports federations and clubs, the test will be their willingness to treat safety not as a reputational risk that needs to be controlled, but as an obligation toward athletes and other participants. For international organizations, the challenge will be aligning standards in sport that is at once locally rooted, globally commercial and often regulated through a complex network of public and private rules.
The new report therefore does not bring only a list of recommendations, but asks who has the right to shape the future of sport. UNESCO and the Sport & Rights Alliance are sending the message that this cannot be only governing bodies, lawyers, officials and expert working groups, but also people who have felt the consequences of dysfunctional systems. If safety is to be established as a mandatory foundation of sport, the voices of survivors, whistleblowers and affected communities must become part of the process in which rules are written, implemented and monitored.
Sources:
- UNESCO – announcement on the report Toward Safe Sport and the recommendations of people affected by violence in sport (link)
- Sport & Rights Alliance – announcement on the report prepared with UNESCO and key recommendations for safe sport (link)
- UNESCO – announcement on the consultation of athletes and people affected by violence in the development of global standards (link)
- World Players Association / UNI Global Union – CARE Report on the childhood experiences of elite athletes (link)
- UNESCO – information on the MINEPS VII conference and the documents of the Fit for Life process (link)
- UNESCO Digital Library – International Charter of Physical Education, Physical Activity and Sport (link)