Each year, the International Day of Sports for Development and Peace takes place on 6 April. The day represents an opportunity to recognise the positive role sports and physical activity plays in communities and in people’s lives across the globe.
In celebration of the day and the positive role of sports and its intersection with human rights, we sat down with Gordon Miller, founder & team leader at Ride For Freedom, a movement that harnesses the universal appeal of cycling to raise awareness, educate and forge partnerships to end modern slavery and provide remedy to survivors through its Freewheel programme.
In this episode we discuss how sport is able to contribute to the advancement of human rights locally and globally. We further explore how sports clubs, sportspersons and other stakeholders can show a collective voice to encourage governments to pass laws to protect the vulnerable and marginalised in society, and how Ride For Freedom’s advocacy supercharges the agenda.
We also hear about the impactful Ride For Freedom German Bundesliga Cycle Tour 2022 that raised awareness of modern slavery and specifically human trafficking in football.
Reflecting on the Tour in particular and Ride For Freedom’s purpose, Gordon said: “ The Trafficking in Persons 2020 Report notes that ‘within Europe’s soccer industry alone, it is estimated there are 15,000 human trafficking victims each year’. Our advocacy bike rides ‘show a red card’ to this crime and seed Freewheel Hubs as legacies to empower survivors to cycle to support their mental and physical health and wellbeing.”
Ardea helped to sponsor the recent Ride for Freedom tour and our Ardea Academy offers the potential for organisations to support Ride for Freedom .
Future podcasts will explore the themes of business and human rights, including highly pertinent aspects such as human rights and environmental due diligence, child labour issues and modern slavery in supply chains.
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