Rugby League World Cup 2021

What we’re doing

Rights Respecting Schools

With Rugby League World Cup’s support, we’re working with nearly 37,000 young people across 98 schools in the North East of England and Yorkshire to learn and promote children’s rights, putting them into practice every day. The programme is not just about what children do but also, importantly, what adults do. In Rights Respecting Schools, children’s rights are promoted and realised, and adults and children work towards this goal together.

We work with teachers and staff every step of the way on their journey to become Rights Respecting, providing training, resources, guidance and, when a school is ready, an assessment by one of our child rights professionals.

What’s more, our bespoke resources help teachers to explore with children of all ages the big issues facing the world today, from the refugee crisis to climate change. 

Child Protection in Brazil

In partnership with the Rugby League World Cup 2021, we are harnessing the power of together to make a transformative difference for children affected by violence in Brazil. Our partnership is focused on the city of Rio de Janeiro, where many children are exposed to especially high levels of violence.

Together with the Rugby League World Cup 2021, our partnership supported improvements in Brazil’s existing child protection services throughout the pandemic and beyond —strengthening their capacity to prevent and respond to violence against children and women, and their ability to reach the children who are most vulnerable.

In addition, our partnership delivered impact for affected communities to increase knowledge on the negative impacts of violence against children, and influence behaviour changes that tackle the root causes of violence, reaching over 1.8 million people with the campaign.  Youth agents of social change reached over 520 young people with messages promoting non-violence and a culture of peace after receiving training through a series of workshops and online activities.  We reached over 4,000 people with awareness activities and community mobilisation interventions centred around gender-based violence. Twenty female mobilisers were trained to educate women and girls about the networks available to them.

RLWC2021 ambassador James Simpson visited a Rights Respecting School in Sheffield to answer students’ questions and hear more about our partnership.