{"id":635991,"date":"2026-04-29T08:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T08:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/635991\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T08:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T08:18:09","slug":"fifa-human-rights-plan-sparks-displacement-fears-in-vancouver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/635991\/","title":{"rendered":"FIFA human rights plan sparks displacement fears in Vancouver"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 2022 report by Pivot Legal Society<\/a> documented the scale of these practices, noting that over a five-day period, city crews removed thousands of dollars\u2019 worth of belongings from homeless individuals.<\/p>\n

Since last August, anti-poverty advocates, local politicians, non-profits, and unhoused individuals have voiced fears<\/a> that the 2026 World Cup would intensify street sweeps. Their concerns aren\u2019t without precedent.<\/p>\n

Cities from Osaka<\/a> to Chicago<\/a> relocated homeless communities<\/a> away from high-visibility areas ahead of hosting FIFA tournaments. More recently, during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, FIFA estimated that around 4,000 families were displaced<\/a> from stadium construction. And during the 2022 tournament in Qatar, landlords kicked out masses of largely foreign tenants<\/a>, sometimes with just days notice, to cash in on high rental rates during the games.<\/p>\n

But this time, the tournament came with a promise.<\/p>\n

According to the \u2018United Bid\u2019 \u2014 a joint Canada-US-Mexico hosting proposal \u2014 the 2026 World Cup would \u201cnot directly or indirectly contribute to an increase in homelessness<\/a>“.<\/p>\n

A plan to make a plan<\/p>\n

This was a landmark commitment following the introduction of FIFA\u2019s first Human Rights Policy<\/a> in 2017. FIFA announced it would require any future hosts to produce their own Human Rights Action Plans (HRAPs) ahead of the tournament.<\/p>\n

The requirements were first applicable to the 2026 games, given the preceding 2022 Qatar tournament bid was awarded seven years prior to the policy announcement.<\/p>\n

The HRAP was said to be a forcing function<\/a> for cities to confront the tournament\u2019s risk on their local vulnerable communities.<\/p>\n

Jennifer Li is the director of the Center for Community Health Innovation at Georgetown Law and coordinator of Dignity 2026: a coalition to protect those at risk<\/a> of harm from the World Cup. Li said HRAPs were intended to address how certain groups could be impacted from the games.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were supposed to acknowledge where existing laws and policies may be insufficient,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

Amanda Burrows, executive director of First United, a non-profit providing essential services to the Downtown Eastside<\/a>, anticipated the plan would include concrete protections to prevent displacement and adhere to the human rights principles that FIFA now requires.<\/p>\n

\u201cI expected the plan to include clear commitments around preventing sweeps, expanding low-barrier spaces and ensuring people have accessible ways to report rights concerns in real time,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

A framework built to be stagnant<\/p>\n

FIFA\u2019s Human Rights Policy describes housing rights as a \u201csalient human rights risk<\/a>\u201d arising from the World Cup. As such, each FIFA World Cup host city was supposed to form a Host Committee group which would address how the tournament wouldn\u2019t “directly or indirectly contribute to an increase in homelessness<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Host Committees are not required to include human rights experts. Jennifer Li explains that this is why the committees were expected to consult with outside organizations. Vancouver\u2019s Host Committee \u2013 who are paid with public funds<\/a>, and in some instances, at over twice the average Canadian salary \u2013 did not include any representatives of the Downtown Eastside organisations.<\/p>\n

Macintyre says that an anti-FIFA coalition, which Pivot is a part of, started making requests to meet with the Committee as of June 2024. Macintyre said those requests were denied. The city of Vancouver did not reply to our request for comment in time for publication.<\/p>\n

“Pivot is connected to dozens of groups in the Downtown Eastside who are all organising around this stuff,\u201d Macintyre says. \u201cIf it’s happening at all, it sounds like a performative box-checking exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recognition without remedy<\/p>\n

After multiple weeks-long extensions, Vancouver\u2019s HRAP was published on 19 February, less than four months ahead of the tournament\u2019s first local match<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 69-page document acknowledges that the World Cup presents risks to the Downtown Eastside’s homeless population. The document names the neighbourhood’s outsized vulnerability, and commits to maintaining existing shelter access and outreach services. The city also noted a list of consulted organisations in its HRAP, which included housing and shelter groups servicing the Downtown Eastside.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the plan makes clear that current enforcement practices will continue.
“It is important to be transparent that the City’s daily public realm management and by-law compliance work will continue,\u201d the document states, \u201cto ensure that parks remain usable by the whole community during the daytime and sidewalks remain safe, clean, and accessible.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 2022 report by Pivot Legal Society documented the scale of these practices, noting that over a five-day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-635991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}