Sport has the power to be a uniting force for good in society in ways little else can, bringing with it great potential to advance human rights, through job creation, employability, new social housing, and urban regeneration. Sport and sporting events can also be associated with serious violations of human rights, which need to be actively prevented, mitigated, and remedied to avoid undermining sport's positive power.

IHRB’s work exploring the human rights implications in sport began in 2012. From 2015, IHRB developed and served as secretariat for the Mega-Sporting Events Platform for Human Rights (MSE Platform), a coalition of international and intergovernmental organisations, governments, sports governing bodies, athletes, unions, sponsors, broadcasters, and civil society groups, collaborating to develop an evidence base, and supporting all actors in implementing their human rights responsibilities. This evolved over years, and led to the launch in 2018 of the independent Centre for Sport and Human Rights

By harnessing sport's uniting power and acting collectively, the diversity of actors involved in the world of sport have the potential to deliver concrete impacts for those affected. The Centre for Sport and Human Rights works towards a vision of a world of sport that fully respects human rights by sharing knowledge, building capacity, and strengthening the accountability of all actors through collective action and promotion of the Sporting Chance Principles.