Hiroshi Ishida on Human Rights and the Tokyo 2020 Olympics

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Mega-sporting events, like the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup, have attracted criticism over human rights concerns, including displacement of communities in Brazil, workers’ rights in Qatar, and the human rights record of host governments as in Russia, and of sponsors. Tokyo will host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020.

Hiroshi Ishida is the executive director at the Caux Round Table Japan, a non-for-profit think-tank and network that promotes social responsibility and sustainability among businesses. Ishida is also a visiting professor at the Graduate School of Economics, Kyushu University. A former banker, he has co-authored a book on corporate social responsibility. At CRT Japan, he is leading advocacy efforts for greater respect for human rights in the lead-up to the 2020 Olympics. In March, CRT Japan issued a call to the Tokyo Organising Committee, the International Olympic Committee and Japanese Olympic Committee, the Japanese Government and corporate sponsors to build on the efforts made towards sustainability at recent Olympic and Paralympic Games and make further improvements.

IHRB's Lucy Amis spoke to Ishida recently about what motivated CRT’s advocacy, the key human rights concerns ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and his priorities over the coming months tofoster good human rights practice at future MSEs globally.