Throughout history, sport has not only reflected social change but also helped to bring hidden injustices into view, giving public voice to struggles over equality, dignity, and belonging. Being embedded in local communities as a lived practice, sport possesses the unparalleled capacity to imagine bottom-up approaches that can move public consciousness about injustice and create the necessary cultural foundation for structural change. Yet sport’s structures and systems have also been shaped by histories of inequality, exclusion, and injustice.
This conference will bring together a diverse and multi-stakeholder group and use the spotlight of the Commonwealth Games to explore how sport can not only acknowledge historical wrongs but also build solidarity and move towards meaningful, sustained action. Grounded in the principles of reparatory and transformative justice, this is a moment to engage, challenge, and lead.
Why are we hosting this Conference now?
The Conference aligns with Emancipation Day on 1 August, which commemorates the abolition of enslavement and indentureship in the British Empire. It further contributes to the 25th Anniversary of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action–a seminal UN document that called on various stakeholders to intensify the fight against racism in sport. It comes at a time of growing momentum around the need for reparatory justice for the legacies of enslavement and colonialism. This is a key to dismantling systemic racism against Africans and people of African descent, as well as the structural discrimination and historical injustices and ongoing impacts of colonisation on Indigenous Peoples, including the suppression of cultural practices such as traditional sports and games.
The UN Secretary-General, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and several UN anti-racism human rights mechanisms have called for reparatory justice. In March 2026, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution which emphasized that claims for reparations represent a concrete step towards remedying historical wrongs against Africans and people of African descent. The African Union designated 2026-2036 as the Decade on Reparations, following the theme of 2025 as the “Year of Reparations: Justice for Africans & People of African Descent through Reparations”. In 2013, the CARICOM Reparations Commission launched a plan to address these lasting socio-economic, cultural, and political harms.
In 2024, CSHR welcomed Dr Epsy Campbell Barr (former Vice President of Costa Rica and former Chairperson of the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent) as its Honorary Chair. At the 2023 Sporting Chance Forum, hosted at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, CSHR initiated discussions on truth, justice, repair & reconciliation in and through sports. In the Commonwealth context, Samoa’s 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) endorsed a communiqué noting calls for reparatory justice, and stated that “the time has come for a meaningful, truthful and respectful conversation towards forging a common future based on equity”. Complementing this communiqué, Commonwealth Sport adopted the Declaration on Reconciliation and Partnership with Indigenous Peoples.
Glasgow is hosting the Commonwealth Games in the same year as the University of Glasgow is marking its 575th Anniversary with multi-dimensional initiatives around reconciliation and reparatory justice, including establishing the Glasgow-Caribbean Centre for Development Research as a joint initiative with the University of the West Indies.
Format and Themes: What to Expect?
The conference focuses on four key themes that have been identified through consultations with stakeholders: truth, justice, repair, and reconciliation. Through a combination of keynotes, thematic panels, youth engagement, collaborative workshops, and creative facilitation, the participants will:
- Hear perspectives from sporting, ministerial, and academic figures, and affected communities.
- Explore how sport can acknowledge and understand its own links to the legacies of colonialism and enslavement, and how these histories shape current experiences.
- Build solidarity and facilitate dialogue and collaboration across sectors and communities.
- Explore how sport can be reimagined as a force for healing, equity, enablement, and unity.
- Discuss how sport can amplify the reparatory justice movement, both internally and externally.
Objectives & Outcomes: What will the Conference deliver?
Before the Conference, CSHR will consult widely to prepare a draft Statement on Reparatory Justice in and through Sports, which will be used to drive and enhance engagement with The Commonwealth and other regional and ministerial bodies.
- Based on the stakeholder feedback, the conference participants will discuss and revise the draft Statement.
- It is expected that sport will be tabled for inclusion as a means to achieve reparatory justice in the programming of The Commonwealth, CHOGM, CARICOM, and the African Union.
- The conference will result in the co-creation of sustainable and actionable practices for incorporating reparatory justice frameworks into sporting events and everyday sports practices and policies, with a particular focus on youth-focused healing and legacy projects.
The Conference is the start of an ongoing programme designed with, for, and by the lived experiences and agency of affected people and communities. The engagement and dialogue on this topic will carry forward at future sporting events.
We look forward to welcoming you to Glasgow!
We invite leaders and voices from across the sports ecosystem, academic community, and civil society for this conversation on how sport can acknowledge and understand past injustices and drive meaningful action and systemic change to level the field, through collaborative strategy development.
Your presence at the conference will ensure that the knowledge shared and lessons learned extend beyond the conference, shifting the debate towards meaningful, sustained, and transformative action.
Time and place
Register your interest in being part of the conversation here.
Confirmed Speakers
- Dr Epsy Campbell Barr, Honorary Chair of CSHR
- Dr Donald Rukare, President of Commonwealth Sport
- Peggy Hicks, Director of the Thematic and Special Procedures Division, OHCHR
- Dr Decius Hikabwa Chipande, Head, African Union Sports Council
- Ephraim Penn, President of the BVI NOC/ CGA
- Diane Henderson, President of the TTO NOC/ CGA
- Dennis (Freddie) Knight, President of the St. Kitts and Nevis NOC/ CGA
- Dr Jacqueline McLaren, The Lord Provost of Glasgow
- David Grevemberg, Special Advisor, CSHR
- Former Chief Ava Hill, Co-Chair, International Working Group on the Commonwealth Sport Declaration on Partnership and Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples
- Geoff Thompson, Chair of Youth Charter
- Dr Ashwini KP, UNSR on contemporary forms of racism
- William Rook, Deputy Chief Executive, CSHR
- Kaukab Stewart, Former Minister for Equalities of Scotland
- Benaifer Bhandari, Co-CEO, Anti-Racism Observatory for Scotland
- Serri (Sura) Mahmood, Sport and Human Rights Coordinator, OHCHR
- Prof Kingsley Abbott, Director, Institute of Commonwealth Studies
- Prof Rachel Sandison, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Glasgow
- Prof Simon Anderson, Co-Director of the Glasgow-Caribbean Centre for Development Research, Professor of Population Health Sciences, University of the West Indies
- Dr Peggy Brunache, Senior Lecturer in History, University of Glasgow
- Teresa Calleb, Former Kenya Captain and Inclusion at FIFA
- Dale Clarke, Barbados Government and President, Professional Road Tennis Association
- Paul Reddish OBE, Anti-racism educator and coach
- Asher Craig, Bristol Legacy Foundation
- Esther Xosei, Maangamizi Educational Trust
- Andrea Florence, Executive Director at Sport & Rights Alliance
- Makeba Alcide, Commonwealth Sport Athlete Advisory Commission
- Dr Bhumika Billa, Performance Poet
- Shubham Jain, CSHR and University of Cambridge
