The Protected Sport Worldwide International Convention 2026 passed off on the College of Cape City (UCT) from 25 to 27 Might 2026, bringing collectively neighborhood apply, athlete voices, governance, regulation and analysis to discover how sport programs all over the world can higher shield these on the coronary heart of sport.
The convention was organised by Protected Sport Worldwide (SSI) – a United Kingdom (UK)-registered charity based in 2014 and the primary impartial world organisation devoted to stopping violence, harassment and abuse in sport. The occasion attracted over 450 delegates in particular person and over 60 on-line, together with researchers, coverage makers, athletes and sport directors from 65 nations throughout the globe.
Attendees spent three days immersed in classes spanning the total spectrum of safeguarding in sport – from keynote shows and analysis panels to workshops, survivor testimony and open regional discussions.
The programme touched on subjects like organisational readiness, case administration and survivor-centred restoration, whereas additionally looking for to deal with extra systemic points, interrogating who holds accountability in sport and whose voices have traditionally been sidelined.
“Internet hosting SafeSport26 was a privilege for the college as a result of it exemplified the function universities can play in bringing collectively analysis, coverage and apply to deal with advanced societal challenges. We have been notably inspired by the emphasis on data mobilisation all through the convention,” mentioned the dean of the School of Commerce, Professor Suki Goodman.
“Internet hosting SafeSport26 strengthened our aspiration to determine UCT as a number one platform for Protected Sport analysis, coverage growth and capacity-building in Africa and the International South.”
“Analysis has its best affect when it informs coverage, strengthens apply and improves individuals’s lives. Internet hosting SafeSport26 strengthened our aspiration to determine UCT as a number one platform for Protected Sport analysis, coverage growth and capacity-building in Africa and the International South.
“As the primary convention of its sort to be held in Africa, it created an vital platform for African voices and experiences to contribute to the worldwide safeguarding agenda.”
Audio system and companions have been drawn from a variety of sporting organisations, together with the Worldwide Olympic Committee, FIFA, World Athletics, World Rugby, the Confederation of African Soccer, the US Middle for SafeSport, UNESCO, South African Sports activities Confederation and Olympic Committee, World Anti-Doping Company, African Union Sports activities Council (AUSC), universities, in addition to safeguarding organisations and practitioners the world over.
The way forward for sport
In his opening deal with, UCT Vice-Chancellor Professor Mosa Moshabela highlighted the function of sport in therapeutic divisions and restoring human connection, notably within the context of the present world local weather.
“Individuals from all completely different walks of life are united by sport. Sport has the ability to vary the world. Sport has the ability to encourage. It has the ability to unite individuals in ways in which little else does,” he mentioned.
“Sport occupies a really particular place in our society. Sport can heal divisions and restore human connection, which is especially vital on the juncture at which we discover ourselves on the earth in the present day. It’s primarily the basis upon which all significant participation, efficiency and growth should stand.”
Contemplating this energy that sport holds to vary social dynamics and uplift people to assist them realise their full potential, Professor Moshabela famous, the dialogue round safeguarding in sport is vital.
“Safeguarding in sport is a crucial human rights matter. It’s an crucial that seeks to guard the integrity of sport itself, in addition to athletes, to guard this stuff holistically – bodily, emotionally, psychologically and socially.
“What’s mentioned in these rooms this week has the potential to have an effect on generations to come back – from these which can be but to enter the sporting enviornment for the primary time, to elite athletes, coaches, sports activities leaders and establishments. It’s going to have an effect on how we go ahead in constructing a tradition of respect and accountability in sport.”
Championing human dignity
Constructing on the vice-chancellor’s thought, Dr Decius Chipande of the AUSC famous that platforms like SafeSport26 current an unmatched alternative to collaborate and create areas from which secure sport may be successfully stewarded.
“We want an inclusive world dialogue to form the way forward for secure sport and create sporting environments which can be secure, inclusive, moral and grounded in humanity and human dignity,” he mentioned.
“To handle the challenges of abuse, exploitation and misconduct – which frequently stay underreported and inadequately addressed on the continent – we want stronger collaboration at nationwide, sub-regional and world ranges.
“Each particular person who enters a sporting setting deserves security, dignity and respect.”
“Safeguarding in sport is a shared duty that can’t be addressed in isolation and the SafeSport26 convention supplies an important platform for dialogue, data sharing and partnership constructing. It provides a chance to advance sensible options and strengthen equitable safeguarding requirements throughout areas.”
Keitumetse Lebaka, board chairperson of Sport for Social Change Community Africa, added to this, noting that safeguarding in sport has far better significance than the motion of merely ticking compliance containers.
“Safeguarding will not be about compliance,” she mentioned. “It’s about defending human dignity. It’s about defending the desires of younger individuals – from these taking part in on dusty fields in villages and townships throughout our continent to athletes competing on the world stage … each particular person who enters a sporting setting deserves security, dignity and respect.”
An African perspective
SafeSport26 marked the primary time the convention had been held on African soil, a call that mirrored SSI’s dedication to making sure that African voices, experiences and contexts contribute meaningfully to the worldwide safeguarding dialog.
This was a degree that Dr Lombe Mwambwa, the chief govt of the International Observatory for Gender Equality & Sport, homed in on in her deal with. Opening with the Bemba proverb “Amano mambulwa” (data is drawn from many sources), Dr Mwambwa highlighted that the character of information means it could actually by no means be positioned in one place or ranked by a single hierarchy.
On this vein, she famous, offering a platform for numerous voices to hitch in on the dialog round safeguarding in sport can change the face of society.
“The worth of collaborating, of sharing and experiencing and pondering and producing collectively, of getting others that you would be able to bounce concepts off of, who can hold you accountable and offer you help while you want it, that’s what’s actually vital. That helps us to mobilise data in order that we are able to create safer and extra inclusive environments,” she shared.
“Information solely turns into highly effective when it strikes into safeguarding programs; into governance constructions; into communities; into cultures of accountability and care.”
Professor Dikaia Chatziefstathiou, the chairperson of the SSI Analysis Committee, emphasised this in her deal with, noting that data mobilisation effected via occasions like SafeSport26 ought to be a core focus for all sports activities practitioners.
“Analysis sitting in journals doesn’t shift cultures. Insurance policies left on cabinets don’t remodel establishments. Frameworks, with out belief and neighborhood engagement, danger reproducing silence relatively than stopping hurt,” she mentioned.
“All of us are data keepers, however data solely turns into highly effective when it strikes into safeguarding programs; into governance constructions; into communities; into cultures of accountability and care.”
The actual query, Professor Chatziefstathiou identified, is whether or not sport is constructing programs of accountability or merely programs of reputational administration. The reply, she mentioned, can solely be discovered by opening the dialog to incorporate the best individuals – not solely coverage makers and researchers, however athletes, communities and people the system has traditionally missed.
Transformative potential
The pinnacle of the Faculty of Administration Research, Affiliate Professor David Maralack, added to this, emphasising the transformative potential that having an African college host SafeSport26 might have on this tradition.
“Internet hosting this convention displays UCT’s dedication to turning into a platform for secure sport analysis, and contributing to documentation, coverage growth and systematic implementation throughout Africa and the International South,” he mentioned.
“For too lengthy, the experiences and challenges of athletes on our continent have been underrepresented in world scholarship, and that hole has left federations, officers and communities with out the proof and administration programs they should act.
“Our intention is to set up a Protected Sport Analysis Platform, in shut alliance with the African Union and our continental and world companions, for beforehand invisible voices to form responsive frameworks and affect sport governance at each stage. We hope to present impact to the chorus of the convention that Protected Sport is the one sport that issues.”
