Assessing the Human Rights Promises of FIFA 2026 in Toronto is a three-year research partnership examining how the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup will affect the human rights, well-being, and everyday lives of children and youth in Toronto. While sports mega-events such as the World Cup promise social benefits, research consistently shows they can negatively impact vulnerable groups, especially youth who are racialized, precariously housed, or engaged in informal/popular economies. The project responds to FIFA’s new 2017 Human Rights Policy and asks whether these commitments meaningfully protect youth in practice.
Through a collaboration between community organizations and researchers from four Ontario universities, the project will investigate both the promised and actual impacts of FIFA 2026 before, during, and after the event. The research includes:
- Critical policy analysis of FIFA’s human rights framework alongside municipal, provincial, and federal policies shaping impacts on young people in Toronto;
- Youth-led participatory research, including interviews, photovoice, digital storytelling, and socio-spatial mapping, focused on lived experiences in neighbourhoods most affected by the World Cup; and
- Policy and program recommendations for improving the protection of children's and youths' rights for future sports mega-events.
This partnership ensures that youth voices, not just institutional perspectives, shape the research from its design through to its final outputs. The findings will support community organizations, inform municipal and national policy discussions, and generate one of the first empirical assessments of FIFA’s human rights commitments in a North American host city.
Partner Organizations
- MLSE LaunchPad
- Maximum City
- The Neighbourhood Organization (TNO)
- Centre for Sport and Human Rights (CSHR)
Key Academic Partners (Applicants/Co-Applicants/Collaborators)
- University of Toronto (Simon Darnell, Sabrina Razack, David Roberts, Luisa Sotomayor, School of Cities)
- York University (Amanda De Lisio, Lyndsay Hayhurst, CITY Institute)
- Western University (Adam Ali)
- Queen’s University (Carolyn Prouse)