The Kick Project

Our new newsletter, Children's Rights in Focus , is now live! To read Issue #1, click on the image below.

The election of Donald J Trump as America's 45th President, confirmed in this week's inauguration, presents numerous challenges to human rights and people power. The boorish, misogynistic, arrogant tenor of his campaign has cast a pall over the rights of minorities in America and across the globe as his "America First" call, by definition, puts everyone else second or worse. The only equality in the scenario he presents is of the George Orwell type: that of some being more equal than others. Such a situation already exists of course. Western males wield more direct and indirect power in global terms than, say, a dark-skinned girl in a slum. Trump is hardly breaking new ground. But, his ascendancy gives that dark reality more momentum. It puts it closer to the centre of normal. His message threatens to break the positive values that link human beings to each other. Globally, governments, civil society and civilians need to make a stand. We need to step up to...

The Kick Project board has now reached agreement with the Rohingya Football Club, Kuala Lumpur, to proceed with the following program.  We are now formally raising funds for the following program, which we aim to begin in January 2016. Phase One: Part 1 Aim 1: Provide full playing kit for the current Rohingya Football Club (RFC) squad. This includes: shirts, shorts, socks, shin-pads, boots, goalkeeper equipment Aim 2: Fund a single playing space for football games. This includes paying fees on a designated municipal football field. Aim 3: Fund Transport. This includes purchasing or leasing a minivan. Part 2 Aim 1: To establish a “Ball Library”. This will be set up as a focal point for the RFC and also for the Rohingya community, with special focus on encouraging access for Rohingya children. Appropriate education initiatives (approved by both RFC representatives and The Kick Project via the Program Management Committee) may be conducted and/or...

Pic:Lockerdome.com A good friend of The Kick Project, Jared Genser, founder of the human rights activist group Freedom Now, alerted us to this piece he co-wrote with well-known Chinese dissident Yang Jianli, in the Wall Street Journal, on the sometimes fraught relationship between big sporting events and human rights. It's an issue that's dear to our hearts here, especially given the plight of migrant workers employed to help construct the facilities for the Qatar World Cup in 2022 (the same year as the Beijing Winter Olympics) It's Important reading. Let's hope it focusses more attention on the negative impacts of big sport in relation to human rights and social justice so as to better harness the many positive outcomes sport can generate. BEIJING OLYMPIC SCANDAL REDUX August 7, 2015 Beijing has been selected to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, making it the first city tapped to host both the Summer and Winter Games. In deciding this, the Internationa...

Pic:Motortradesindustry.co.uk Recently, I (James) was asked by Ray Gill, editor of The Daily Review, to write up a piece on The Kick Project, what it's about, and why anybody should be interested. Here's what I wrote .

Pic: Vibe Celebrity and Aid US Criticised over Celebrity Aid Visit to Haiti Peace Bitter Enemies Reconcile in Ireland PR US Coal Company Using Ebola Crisis as PR Tool Gaza Project The Children of Gaza Need More than Aid  (Our article for Crikey) Pic: Daily Telegraph Sport and Development The Power of Footy in Fiji Migration Australian Town Shows How Migration Works NGOs Govt Seeks to Punish Greenpeace for Reef Ad Campaign Crackdowns on NGOs Across Asia Are Human Rights NGOs "Too Establishment"?