xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) territories / Vancouver, BC – On behalf of an informal coalition of organizations and collectives in the DTES and Chinatown communities (“the Coalition”), we are sounding the alarm on the massive human rights implications of the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2026 – which, so far, the City of Vancouver has refused to adequately address.

On February 19th, 2026, Vancouver’s FIFA Host City Committee (“the Committee”) released its Draft Human Rights Action Plan (“the Draft Plan”), which the City’s contract with FIFA requires it to produce as part of its Host City obligations. The World Cup is set to come to Vancouver first through the 2026 FIFA Congress in April, and then for seven matches at BC Place scheduled between June 11-July 7, 2026.

Unlike other FIFA World Cup 2026 host cities, Vancouver was not required to submit an initial consideration of human rights and plans to involve stakeholders. Instead, coasting on its reputation as a City dedicated to so-called “equity” and “reconciliation,” Vancouver signed onto a boiler-plate agreement that it is committed to maintaining human rights – promising that an Action Plan, guided by the FIFA Human Rights Framework, would follow.

From the outset, the Committee’s process should have been rooted in robust, meaningful public engagement with peoples, collectives, and organizations who will be most impacted by FIFA’s descent into Vancouver. Our Coalition’s offers to meet with the Committee to share our perspectives, concerns, and potential solutions – which we made as early as June 2024 – were routinely rebuffed. Instead, the Committee told us that its Plan would rely primarily on existing City policies and bylaws, as well as provincial and federal legislation.

The Committee’s failures to work with impacted communities, and its over-reliance on existing laws and policies, is blatantly apparent throughout its 57-page Draft Action Plan released on February 19th. As per FIFA’s requirements, the Action Plan was to (1) identify FIFA-related human rights risks for certain populations (including people experiencing homelessness); and (2) introduce specific, targeted measures to address those risks.
Review of the Plan

The February 19th Action Plan, in our reading, falls short of “introducing” anything at all. The Plan does recognize the risk of FIFA-related human rights harms – and in some cases, even goes so far as to acknowledge the disproportionate risk for areas of the City outside of the immediate FIFA “perimeter”, including the Downtown Eastside. But, after acknowledging this very real risk of harm, the Plan offers little to mitigate it. Instead, it rallies off a list of already-in-place rules, policies, and processes that supposedly apply to potential harms under each rights category listed under FIFA’s Framework.

For example, FIFA requires each City’s Action Plan to outline steps to “prevent and mitigate the displacement of unsheltered populations” in connection with hosting the World Cup. In the section of the Draft Action Plan that addresses this obligation, the Committee assures that “provincial and municipal tenant protections will continue to apply” throughout the games. The Committee well knows, however, that the “protections” it references – including BC’s Residential Tenancy Act and the Short Term Rental Accommodations Act – do nothing to protect people who shelter outside, who are most likely to experience FIFA-related displacement.

Further, at a moment when tenancy protections are under threat and at risk of being rolled-back, vague references to those laws “continuing to apply” offer little reassurance. The furthest the Draft Action Plan goes to address the rights of people who rely on public space is to indicate that existing allowances for temporary shelters to be erected overnight in most City parks will continue to apply. Notably, the Plan makes no promise as to desperately needed daytime respite spaces – unlike overnight sheltering, daytime sheltering is outlawed under City bylaws and a routine vehicle for criminalization – but indicates that the City is “discussing further potential actions” in this regard.

The Plan as a whole is riddled with weak, empty language like the City “will continue” or “will monitor” – as opposed to “will implement”, “will scale up”, or “will fund.” In a profound contradiction, the Action Plan recognizes that FIFA brings an increased risk of harm to Vancouver’s residents, and yet promises nothing to effectively mitigate it. But is our current moment – an ever-expanding housing crisis, a toxic drug poisoning epidemic killing our loved ones, increasing cycles of criminalization and displacement – not a symptom that the “existing” rules are failing? And is the recognition that FIFA could exacerbate harms to our communities not enough to demand something more, something better?

Redress and remedy

Beyond the Draft Action Plan’s failures to effectively mitigate risk of human rights violations, we are further alarmed by its lack of planning for reporting and redress when violations do (inevitably) occur. Access to remedy is a primary pillar of the FIFA’s own Human Rights Framework and falls within the responsibility of the City as a host for the World Cup.

Within the stadium and fanzone at the PNE, FIFA’s own human rights reporting system is in place. For violations that occur outside these designated areas, the Draft Action Plan directs people to 311 services, which are not at this time equipped for reporting human rights violations or delivering real remedy. These services are notoriously inaccessible for folks who are most likely to experience rights violations, by reason of cyclical displacement, a lack of access to technology and technology literacy, and/or past experiences that have yielded deep distrust. Other potential avenues for redress listed in the Action Plan – including filing a claim with the BC Human Rights Tribunal – are years-long processes, and are useless for redressing (entirely foreseeable) violations as they happen.

Towards a final plan

The Draft Action Plan was originally set to be released by the end of 2025, but was then delayed until February 2026 without explanation. This decision further shortened the already tight turn around to undertake meaningful community consultation on the plan.

The Coalition met with the Committee on February 20, 2026 – the day after the Draft Action Plan was released. As noted above, our attempts to meet while the Plan was being prepared, so that our input could be reflected therein, had been refused (despite the Plan’s assurances of “consultation” and “engagement”).

With the final draft of the City’s Action Plan to be released sometime in May, we are deeply skeptical about the Committee’s ability to have a comprehensive response, adequate training, and robust public education with respect to the human rights implications of the games before they kick off in June. Further, the FIFA Bylaw passed by the City in November 2025 takes effect May 13, 2026, suggesting that the City knows that FIFA will “already be here” by May, and is responding as such. That the Bylaw, which focuses on the City’s branding and security obligations to FIFA, was finalized months ago and will come into effect well in advance of the games, while the Action Plan, intended to address FIFA-related human rights implications, is being pushed off until the final moment shows where the City’s priorities lie.

Our Coalition wants to be clear: we have not been effectively “consulted”, we have not been meaningfully “engaged”, and we do not trust that the Draft Action Plan tackles the FIFA-related harms that the City itself has invited by being a host city. In the absence of a “plan” we can rely on, we will continue to find the answers for safety, harm reduction, and care in our own communities.