Empowering Athletes, Transforming Sports.
Equipping athletes with the tools to secure their livelihoods, remedy injustices, and strengthen access to rights, empowering them to change their own lives and the realm of sport. Join us on this journey towards success!
Our Vision
A realm of sport that respects the agency and dignity of every human in sport.
Our Mission
Equipping athletes with the tools to secure their livelihoods, remedy injustices, and strengthen access to rights, empowering them to change their own lives and the realm of sport.
Our Purpose
Support Athletes harmed by sex-testing policies
Influence Change in sport and beyond.
The Problem
Private sport governing bodies (federations & multi-sport organizations etc.) prioritize their economic interests and cultural biases over the well-being of individuals in sport. This can marginalize, exclude, and even directly harm individual athletes. While certain organizations in the sporting ecosystem are engaging with institutions to change harmful policies, there is an urgent need for initiatives to strengthen and empower individuals facing discrimination, abuse & exclusion. In particular, athletes from Global South countries – who are marginalized in sport & in society, need such support.
The Solution
Transform athlete lives to revolutionise sport. Recognizing the agency and dignity of every human in sport, we empower athletes with the tools to secure their livelihoods against the threat of exclusionary policies; seek remedy for injustices committed against them; and demand full and equal access to human rights. We provide negotiation, leadership, and advocacy skills training to help them improve not only their own lives, but sport itself. By tackling systemic wrongs and, when possible, using their public platforms to speak out, these athletes can play a powerful role in realizing a more just and inclusive society.
Global South
Global sport governance has traditionally been Euro-centric, leaving very little room for participation from stakeholders from the Global South. Most international federations of sport are led by Europeans and North Americans & these organisations are also mostly based in Europe. Global Sport Policies are therefore created with restricted knowledge of the global sporting experience while the majority of athletes come from the continents of Africa, Asia & South America. Empowering athletes to voice their perspectives, building solidarity to promote marginalized viewpoints, and guaranteeing the participation of Global South representatives to inform decision making around global sport can help create more equitable governance.
Gender Justice
Sex-testing policies in sport have caused severe harm. These policies have particularly impacted women athletes from the global south, in countries with limited human rights and particularly LGBTIQ + protection and inadequate awareness about human rights. Some International Federation treated women with innate variations of sex characteristics
In its initial years, Humans of Sport would consolidate the existing work of its Founder/Executive Director Payoshni Mitra, who has worked with nearly 40 women athletes with innate variations of sex characteristics (intersex women) from Africa & Asia for the last 15 years. Th This work helps create meaningful alliances with athletes, coaches, lawyers, healthcare providers, media persons and others to support vulnerable athletes and achieve access to justice, thus ensuring non-discrimination & inclusion of all in sports.
Empower athletes, advocate for justice – take action with Humans of Sport.
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