Safeguarding

Our Commitment To Safeguarding

Keeping children safe from abuse, exploitation and harm is at the heart of Right To Play’s mission, values, strategy and culture. As a child-centred organization, we want to ensure that everyone who comes into contact with our organization is safe. No child, youth, adult or person with vulnerabilities should be harmed or placed at risk of harm because of anything we do or neglect to do, intentionally or unintentionally.

Right To Play works with some of the most vulnerable children and adults in the world. We recognize the risks inherent in the unequal position of power that we hold vis-à-vis the children and adults who come in contact with us. We are committed to ensuring that our organizational practices and culture are safe and inclusive for everyone who comes in contact with us, and to continuously learn from and improve our safeguarding approaches. We are dedicated to tackling the root causes of gender inequality and unequal power dynamics that contribute to harm and violence, such as sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse (SHEA). We achieve this through a gender-responsive, intersectional safeguarding approach that protects all children and program participants from all forms of violence by Right To Play representatives such as staff, volunteers and partners.

We recognize the importance of integrating child protection and psychosocial support to promote children's well-being and protection from harm, ensuring our responses are age-friendly and that we remain accountable to children and affected populations. We understand that safeguarding cannot be effective if it is separate from the core of our work. We are committed to integrating safeguarding practices across all that we do and making it central to our organizational culture.

Safeguarding Framework At Right To Play

Right To Play applies the following approach to prevent and respond to abuse, exploitation and harm by our staff, representatives, and partners towards anyone who comes in contact with us:

Awareness: Right To Play staff, volunteers, stakeholders, and partners must maintain high standards of behaviour to protect individuals living with vulnerabilities. Safeguarding awareness is integrated into recruitment, contracting, onboarding, training, programming, monitoring, and operations.

Prevention: Right To Play will assess and minimize risks of abuse, exploitation, and harm in all programs and operations through continuous awareness and good practices. This includes vetting staff, volunteers, and partners, providing regular trainings and designing programs to reduce safeguarding risks.

Reporting: Right To Play has a clear process, which is regularly reviewed, for reporting safeguarding concerns globally, with context-specific processes in each country. All staff, volunteers, and partners know how to safely report suspicions within 24 hours. Community members that we enter in contact with directly are made aware of our community-friendly reporting channels.

Responding: Right To Play will take immediate action to identify and address reports of abuse, exploitation and harm to children or vulnerable adults, and to ensure the safety and well-being of all persons involved, taking a survivor-centred approach and protecting those who report.

Accountabilities and Responsibilities

At Right To Play, safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility. Nevertheless, responsibilities and time dedicated to it might vary based on the role of staff. The Right To Play Global Safeguarding Specialist is responsible for strengthening the safeguarding framework and culture in the organization with the support of the safeguarding focal points present in HQ, National and Country Offices. Ultimate safeguarding accountability resides with the Safeguarding Lead – the Chief of P&C Officer and other members of the Right To Play Executive Team.

Read our Safeguarding Overview

Report a Concern

Right To Play uses the ClearView Connects platform for anonymous reporting. Your identity will remain anonymous to the organization and will only be disclosed with your consent.