Freedom United recently joined a broad cross-section of organizations all committed to advancing fairness, transparency, and equity in Atlanta in the lead up to the World Cup in 2026. The group takes the position that mega-events and large-scale public projects should create good jobs, protect human rights (including immigrant rights), prevent racial discrimination, and strengthen — not fragment — local communities. Freedom United joined this group to ensure modern slavery and human rights concerns include the lived experiences and voices of survivors and reflect best practices on ALL forms of modern slavery across awareness raising and preventative activities the city is engaging in.

Together, the coalition seeks to:

• Align around shared values of social, racial, and economic justice; equity; and accountability.
  
• Ensure that community voices, especially those most impacted, shape outcomes.
  
• Promote good jobs, worker protections, and fair labor practices.
  
• Advance safe, healthy, and inclusive communities by reducing reliance on police and incarceration and promoting access to dignified housing.
  
• Hold public and private actors accountable for decisions that affect Atlanta’s people.

With Atlanta as a host city for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Play Fair ATL will ensure the event is fair for residents, workers, and immigrant communities — holding the city accountable on housing, justice, labor, transit, the environment, and immigrant rights, so the World Cup emphasizes people, not profit.

Vision Statement

Atlanta can host a world-class World Cup that reflects our values:

Good jobs, better transit, environmental protections, immigrant and criminal justice equity, fair housing, and ultimately – dignity –  for everyone who calls this city home, and comes to visit.

Core Principles

• Community Benefits: The World Cup should improve lives, not drive displacement, incarceration, or exploitation.
• Community Voices: Those most impacted — workers, renters, immigrants, and Black Atlantans — must shape the policies and priorities for the World Cup.
• Transparency and Accountability: Public funds and decisions impacting our communities must be open and accountable.
  

Policy Priorities

Freedom United’s excerpted contribution to the group’s policy platform is below, followed by the entire policy platform published by the coalition.

Goal: Atlanta World Cup organizers adhere to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and work transparently and inclusively with anti-modern slavery agencies and survivors to enhance/adopt human trafficking/modern slavery prevention, identification and response strategies.

Key Policies:

• All event stakeholders adopt an anti-trafficking policy designed in partnership with trafficking survivors that includes prevention strategies  and effective grievance mechanisms, as well as remediation. All policies to include and reflect survivor’s expertise and include the below areas:
  • Forced labor and exploitation: ban use of forced labor, illegal child labor, and any form of involuntary servitude.
  • Document retention: Prohibition on destroying, concealing, confiscating, or otherwise denying another person access to their identity or immigration documents.
  • Recruitment: Ban the use of misleading or fraudulent recruitment practices, failure to disclose key terms of employment, the use of recruiters who don’t comply with local laws, and charging employees recruitment fees. 
  • Hiring: Staff hired with special attention to sub-contracting practices which should be limited and duly monitored by third party organizations.
• Require suppliers and vendors to engage in and report on supply chain due diligence activities including supply chain mapping and monitoring. 
  • All vendors must demonstrate responsible sourcing of their products and provide evidence of supply chain due diligence. 
• Ensure comprehensive training created with input from survivors and provided to all event stakeholder’s relevant staff on how to identify and respond to human trafficking/modern slavery red flags including labor exploitation, labor trafficking and sex trafficking. 
  • Require Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) to be put in place, especially for exploitation prone sectors like construction, food service and hotel personnel for how to respond if trafficking is suspected and how to connect victims with survivor centered support services for both labor and sex trafficking.
• Require provision of effective reporting mechanisms vetted by survivors for workers to safely report labor abuses and exploitation. 
• Require event stakeholders to meaningfully and substantively engage with anti-trafficking, human rights, civil society and survivor organizations on the ground before, during, and after the World Cup to assess risks and adopt necessary mitigation strategies.
• Provide multiple channels for survivors, sectoral organizations and grassroots associations to contribute their lived experience and expertise to anti-trafficking asset building and policy formation especially around training, reporting and appropriate actions coupled with (when needed) connection to support services if/when trafficking or exploitation is identified.

Below is the entire Policy Platform published by PlayFairATL

1. Labor and Worker Rights

Goal: The Host Committee and any entities contracting on its behalf adopt a Responsible Contractor Policy for all World Cup-related contracts, ensuring dignified work and fair compensation.

Key Policies:

• Require a minimum wage of $26.10/hour or the prevailing wage (whichever is higher) for non-construction sectors.
  
• Ensure all workers are properly classified as W-2 employees, not misclassified as 1099 contractors.
  
• Contractors and subcontractors protect workers’ rights to access fair pay, benefits, and the right to form or join a union
• Disqualify contractors with recent violations of wage, safety, or other labor laws.
  
• Require expedited dispute resolution mechanisms such as arbitration of allegations of the denial of or coercion in the exercise of the employees’ freedom of association rights, and the holding of quick private union elections overseen by an arbitrator.
  
• Apply Local Hire (First Source Hiring) requirements to prioritize employment for residents from disadvantaged communities and registered apprenticeship programs.
  
• Prevent discrimination or retaliation against immigrant workers reporting labor violations. Require contractors and subcontractors to have clear ICE policies.
  

Goal: Drive up the standards of the Atlanta restaurant industry as a whole by pushing Waffle House, an icon for “Southern hospitality” founded and headquartered in Atlanta, to raise its standard pay and other corporate policies in advance of the World Cup.

Key Policies: 

• A seat at the table. Waffle House Corporate must meet with employees organized with the Union of Southern Service Workers to co-create a pathway to the policies that follow. 
• An end to unfair paycheck deductions. Waffle House must end their mandatory meal deduction policy and make it optional for workers to purchase discounted shift meals.
• A fair wage. Waffle House must institute a $25/hour minimum wage for all workers, cooks and servers.
• Safety at work. Waffle House must provide 24/7 security and allow workers to have real input on creating a Safety Plan for their store, including during natural disasters.

Goal: Establish enhanced contractor responsibility and quality standards for public works contracts by passing a responsible bidder ordinance for the City of Atlanta covering all public works contracts over $100,000 and related subcontractors at $50,000 or more.

Key Policies:

• Reinvest public funds into the local economy to promote sustained economic growth, job creation, and the development of a highly skilled, professional workforce within the City of Atlanta and its surrounding region
• Ensure that public investment in construction projects provides direct economic benefits to the citizens of Atlanta through increased local employment opportunities and the development of career pathways for City residents. The Contractor and every Subcontractor shall certify that all workers are properly classified as employees or independent contractors in accordance with all applicable federal and state labor, tax, and unemployment compensation laws, including Georgia’s specific misclassification laws
• Contractors adopt and maintain responsible business practices, including full and verifiable compliance with all applicable federal, state, and local wage, tax, licensing, environmental, and workplace safety laws and regulations, including those enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). 
• Promote participation in bona fide, Federally Registered Apprenticeship Programs provides structured pathways to high-paying, middle-class careers in the skilled trades, thereby enhancing the economic well-being of residents and addressing current and future skilled labor shortages by sponsoring or participating in an established, U.S. DOL-approved Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP) and maintaining at least fifteen percent  of the total worker-hours performed in each Skilled Trade by apprentices registered in a RAP applicable to that trade.

2.  Housing:

Goal: Stop the displacement and criminalization of unhoused people that is perpetuated by the “Downtown Rising” plan which seeks to remove people before the World Cup. Ensure housing outreach leads to safe, stable, and long-term rehousing for unhoused people. Ensure public dollars from the World Cup benefit communities, prevent displacement of legacy homeowners, protect tenants, and expand access to affordable housing.

Key Policies:

• Dedicate 5% of hotel tax revenue from the World Cup to the Housing Trust Fund (HTF).
  
• Allocate 80% of HTF funds for affordable housing projects; 20% for emergency rental assistance.
  
• Ensure Downtown Rising meetings are public, advertised, recorded, and archived.
  
• Expand public restrooms in areas near World Cup events via a Hospitality Task Force.
  
• Create a public dashboard by the end of the year that tracks outcomes of encampment evictions, including but not limited to: location, size and population, when the encampment was first engaged, how many times the encampment was engaged and by which organizations, when it was closed, did the person consent to relocation, how many people were housed, how many people assigned to one case manager, where were people placed, what type of housing was offered and how long is the housing term, any commitment to wraparound services, how many people left the area without housing, how many people were arrested at the location, and how many diversions occurred.

3. Criminal Legal Reform

Goal: Leverage the World Cup as an opportunity to implement long-term policies that promote safety, reduce incarceration, and reduce police interactions among Atlantans who are disproportionately targeted by law enforcement.

Key Policies:

• An administrative order requiring law enforcement agencies to prioritize and utilize community response and diversion services, and making certain low-level offenses citation-only.
• Promote bilingual “311 for Community Response” as an alternative to calling 911 through public education and marketing on city platforms. Promote use of Diversion Center. Campaigns should include messaging for visitors who may be unaware of city and county services. 
• Provide funding for the hiring of city ambassadors who ride transit, are local, familiar with available resources, and trained as community health workers. This should be managed by an existing nonprofit with street outreach experience.  This will help ensure minimization of unnecessary interactions between law enforcement and the public, and promote timely connection to services for various needs. Hiring should emphasize people with lived experience, including formerly incarcerated people.
• Create a public dashboard by the end of year that tracks arrests data and other relevant statistics about how law enforcement and other city agencies are using low-level offenses and “vagrancy” laws to displace unhoused people.
• Remove Criminal Penalties from the Municipal Code. Many city-level offenses are duplicative of state-level charges, and criminalize public health issues like addiction or mental health challenges. The city should embrace a public health and diversionary approach to these issues and remove them from the municipal code.
• Ban All Quotas and Point Systems That Incentivize Arrest. The city sets targets for Atlanta Police that push officers to reach certain targets on arrests that do not correlate with improved public safety. Such a focus detracts from the city’s emphasis on diversion and public health. 
• Coordinate with Fulton County officials to avoid increases in jail populations, including but not limited to use of prosecutorial discretion, usage of “no fee” post-arrest diversion, frequency of court dates allowing for bond reconsideration, adoption of and adherence to time standards for adjudication of“non-complex” offenses, expanded capacity for accountability courts and services, promote the use of virtual court options, send court reminders digitally.
• Terminate the use of the Atlanta City Detention Center by Fulton County.
  

4. Immigrant Justice

Goal: Ensure Atlanta’s immigrant communities and international visitors are protected and welcomed during the World Cup.

Key Policies:

• The City Council should pass a resolution reaffirming Atlanta’s commitment to being a “Welcoming City”, in line with the city government’s own stated desire to “stand proud as a welcoming city”, and endorsing the protection and dignity of non-citizens in all city actions, including but not limited to policy, data sharing, and public safety.
  
• The City must avoid including federal immigration officers, including ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in law enforcement activities related to the World Cup, and avoid entering into agreements with federal immigration agencies for the purpose of law enforcement related to the tournament.
• Work with local businesses and employers to create ICE-free zones.
• Official World Cup venues, including hotels, transit, stadiums, practice facilities, and Fan Fest locations must clearly designate private, employee-only areas and have clear lines of communication and protocols around interactions with law enforcement including immigration enforcement.
• De-prioritize arrests for low-level offenses to reduce immigration-related consequences.

5. Transit

Goal: Make transit affordable, accessible, and connected to safe micromobility and pedestrian infrastructure before and after the World Cup.

Key Policies:

MARTA:

• Implement a student fare program for the World Cup and continuing thereafter.
  
• Cap fares so passengers pay only for actual rides taken. MARTA should cap transit fares when it rolls out the new fare system, so passengers only pay for the actual rides they take within a certain time period, up to the cost of a day or weekly pass. This would be a big win for riders who need it most. A 30 day pass costs $95 up front, so reducing that to $2.50 over time would support riders who don’t have $95 cash on hand. MARTA’s new fare technology will make it feasible to implement this change. MARTA would benefit from having increased ridership, which makes transit feel safer. 
• Provide funding for the hiring of city ambassadors who ride transit, are local, familiar with available resources, and trained as community health workers. This should be managed by an existing nonprofit with street outreach experience.  This will help ensure minimization of unnecessary interactions between law enforcement and the public, and promote timely connection to services for various needs. Hiring should emphasize people with lived experience, including formerly incarcerated people.

Permanent street & transit improvements:

To maximize the impact of existing city investments and ensure long-term benefits, we propose the following:

Expand safe streets & multimodal access

• Safe Street projects:
  • Per 24-O-1483, the ordinance supporting Atlanta Urban Redevelopment Area (AURA) revenue bonds for FWC readiness, incorporate safe street projects into planned resurfacing and transit improvements
• Build a protected bike network:
  • Establish north-south protected bike lanes on Courtland and Piedmont.
  • Establish east-west protected bike lanes on Portman and MLK.
• Create dedicated bus lanes:
  • On Courtland and along the Summerhill BRT corridor (MLK & Mitchell).
  • On North Avenue to improve east-west transit connectivity.
• Expand bike and pedestrian infrastructure:
  • Build a bike lane on COP/Walker from Marietta to Peters.
  • Convert Peachtree Street, International Boulevard, and Centennial Olympic Park Drive to pedestrian- and bike-only zones (Baker to Marietta) during the World Cup, creating a safer and more vibrant event experience.

To make transit, biking, and micromobility viable for all riders, we propose the following:

• Maintain all existing bike lanes and transit services throughout the event, ensuring riders have uninterrupted access.
• Keep MARTA Streetcar operational to provide continuous access to downtown destinations.
• Support bike and scooter valet services for event attendees:
  • Partner with Two Wheel Valet to provide secure parking for personal bikes and scooters at all World Cup events, encouraging low-carbon travel.
  • Request micromobility providers deploy on-site attendants to organize the influx of shared micromobility vehicles in designated parking zones.
• Temporarily lift the geofenced restriction around the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC) during the World Cup:
  • With micromobility attendants managing vehicle parking, the current geofence should be lifted to enable seamless first- and last-mile connections for attendees.
  • This will reduce congestion, improve accessibility, and ensure an orderly parking system near key venues.

Expand micromobility to support equitable transportation access

• Increase the permitted number of micromobility vehicles during the World Cup, ensuring more people can access low-carbon, shared mobility options.
  • Additional revenue from these permits should be directed to the Safety and Mobility Fund to finance future bike/scoot lanes and pedestrian infrastructure.

Signage & wayfinding improvements:

• Improve multimodal wayfinding to connect key transit hubs to World Cup venues

6. Environment

Goal: Extend Mercedes Benz Stadium’s commitment to sustainability to the entire World Cup footprint, ensuring the 2026 World Cup in Atlanta is environmentally responsible — minimizing waste, reducing emissions, and protecting biodiversity — leaving a legacy of sustainability that benefits local communities.

Key Policies:

• Minimize single-use plastics at World Cup events
  
• Promote reuse of water bottles through water-filling stations.
  
• Ensuring contracts include source food from Southeast-based farmers.
  
• Implement recycling and composting programs at World Cup events with clear signage and training.
  
• Donate surplus food and materials to local organizations such as the Atlanta Food Bank, Retazza.
  
• Purchase and use renewable energy sources (e.g., solar).
  
• Regarding the planned substation under construction near the stadium, adopt a binding and comprehensive community benefits agreement between Southern Company and Vine City residents approved by a neighborhood election administered by trusted local partners with a history of neighborhood accountability, such as NPU L.
  
• Align actions with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

7. Human Trafficking

Goal: Atlanta World Cup organizers adhere to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and work transparently and inclusively with anti-modern slavery agencies and survivors to enhance/adopt human trafficking/modern slavery prevention, identification and response strategies.

Key Policies:

• All event stakeholders adopt an anti-trafficking policy designed in partnership with trafficking survivors that includes prevention strategies  and effective grievance mechanisms, as well as remediation. All policies to include and reflect survivor’s expertise and include the below areas:
  • Forced labor and exploitation: ban use of forced labor, illegal child labor, and any form of involuntary servitude.
  • Document retention: Prohibition on destroying, concealing, confiscating, or otherwise denying another person access to their identity or immigration documents.
  • Recruitment: Ban the use of misleading or fraudulent recruitment practices, failure to disclose key terms of employment, the use of recruiters who don’t comply with local laws, and charging employees recruitment fees. 
  • Hiring: Staff hired with special attention to sub-contracting practices which should be limited and duly monitored by third party organizations.
• Require suppliers and vendors to engage in and report on supply chain due diligence activities including supply chain mapping and monitoring. 
  • All vendors must demonstrate responsible sourcing of their products and provide evidence of supply chain due diligence. 
• Ensure comprehensive training created with input from survivors and provided to all event stakeholder’s relevant staff on how to identify and respond to human trafficking/modern slavery red flags including labor exploitation, labor trafficking and sex trafficking. 
  • Require Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) to be put in place, especially for exploitation prone sectors like construction, food service and hotel personnel for how to respond if trafficking is suspected and how to connect victims with survivor centered support services for both labor and sex trafficking.
• Require provision of effective reporting mechanisms vetted by survivors for workers to safely report labor abuses and exploitation. 
• Require event stakeholders to meaningfully and substantively engage with anti-trafficking, human rights, civil society and survivor organizations on the ground before, during, and after the World Cup to assess risks and adopt necessary mitigation strategies.
• Provide multiple channels for survivors, sectoral organizations and grassroots associations to contribute their lived experience and expertise to anti-trafficking asset building and policy formation especially around training, reporting and appropriate actions coupled with (when needed) connection to support services if/when trafficking or exploitation is identified.

8. Transparency

Goal: All decisions, contracts, and expenditures related to the 2026 World Cup are transparent, accessible, and accountable to Atlanta’s residents.

Key Policies:

• City to develop a public survey to assess resident concerns, in partnership with Play Fair ATL.
• Require monthly public meetings or town halls between the City, FIFA, Host Committee, and the public. Ensure that meetings have at least one week’s notice and include agenda and minutes,. 
• Maintain regular communication between Host Committee and Play Fair ATL through weekly calls and monthly meetings.
• Maintain regular communication with impacted neighborhoods, including but not limited to Castleberry, Vine City, West Midtown, English Ave, and Downtown.
• Publish progress updates  and tracker detailing projected World Cup revenue, contracting, and spending plans.

Conclusion

The world is coming to Atlanta.  Let’s show the best of who we are — a city that values fairness, dignity, and justice for all.

Play Fair ATL: People Before Profit.

Visit www.playfairatl.com for more information.

Appendix

• ATL coalition Human Rights Action Plan Response
• New coalition will watchdog Atlanta’s World Cup promises