Study to analyse World Cup impact on Brazil’s children

Published On Fri 4 Jul 2014 by Grant Hill

The World Cup is in full swing in Brazil but what will be the effects of such a huge sporting event on the country’s children?

A study led by the University of Dundee, in collaboration with the Pontifical Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro, is to examine potential human rights violations towards children around the World Cup.

“Sporting mega events like the World Cup have a huge impact on the countries which host them but unfortunately that can also include negative effects, particularly for some of the most marginalised in society,” said Dr Lorraine van Blerk, from the School of Environment at Dundee.

“Heightened security, construction work, environmental improvements of city areas and other factors all impact on populations such as street children. We saw this in the last World Cup in South Africa and every big sporting event such as this or the Olympics is inevitably preceded by stories of effects on the local population.

“However, there hasn’t really been a systematic analysis of these impacts. We will be working with organisations on the ground in Brazil, collecting reports and statistics and documenting any human rights violations against children.”

The project will report its findings around the end of this year. The study is being funded by  OAK Foundation.

It arose out of an expert consultation held in March in Geneva which looked at human rights violations against children during mega-sporting events, that included contributions from the Dundee team.

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