Alison BISCOE’09 arrived at Branksome Hall in 2001, a month shy of her 10th birthday, drawn by her family’s early interest in the International Baccalaureate curriculum Principal Karen Jurjevich was preparing to launch. Alison soon developed an IB-influenced interest in different places and different cultures, she says, almost as quickly as she embraced Branksome’s numerous sports opportunities.
“I can tick those off,” says Alison, who now lives in Switzerland, where she’s head of program development and partnerships at the Geneva-based Centre for Sport and Human Rights. “Basketball, volleyball, baseball, whatever—I signed on for the whole gamut,” she says, “but I was most involved in rowing.” Alison’s twin interests were what she and Karen would chat about when they encountered one another at school events. “The IB, of course, but she was always very big on sports, too,” Alison continues. “Her Athletics and Wellness Centre was still a project when I graduated—my parents bought one of the fundraising bricks—but I would have lived in it during my time.”
Balancing her love of sports and her academic interests became a central part of Alison’s focus as she moved through higher grades. “When I got to Grade 9, figure skating, which I did outside of Branksome, was my main sport,” she says. “In Grade 10, I joined one of Canada’s junior national synchronized skating teams, but that was so intensive that I had to cut down on rowing and also consider the demands of the two main IB years. So, I pulled back on the skating front, which let me row in Grades 11 and 12.”
And concentrate on the world at large. “Through Branksome I did all the model UNs, including the main one, The Hague International Model United Nations [THIMUN] in the Netherlands, in Grades 11 and 12,” Alison says. “I also took part in one of Branksome’s exchange programs in Grade 10—a couple of months at the Diocesan School for Girls in Makhanda, South Africa—but THIMUN was what really introduced me to the whole international system, which I then went on to study at university. All that came out of the programs I was involved in at Branksome.”
After graduation, armed with her IB and a certain let’s-not-waste-time attitude, Alison headed off to the University of Nottingham in the U.K. because of its highly regarded international relations program and the way it compressed a BA and a master’s degree into four years of study. There, a pre-graduation internship that focused on microfinancing sparked her interest in business and human rights in the developing world. After leaving Nottingham with a MSci in international relations and global issues, Alison worked at a London-based investment network, Principles for Responsible Investment, for three years, before moving to the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB).
“They’re a think tank that applies international human rights principles to how businesses operate,” Alison says. “They do it by looking at sectors or issues no one else is considering, and that’s how sports came into it. A happy coincidence for me, when two worlds
I never thought would come together in this way actually did.”
Backed by two of the largest UN bodies—the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the International Labour Organization—the idea quickly gained traction at the institute. “When we started, it was just me and two colleagues wondering if anyone would take us seriously,” says Alison. “Now we work with major sports federations, UN agencies, governments and the private sector.”
In 2018, the IHRB spun out the new Centre for Sport and Human Rights and moved it to Geneva, a city Alison and her boyfriend love. The centre’s founding patron is Mary Robinson, Ireland’s first woman president and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Alison is deeply involved in some of the most pressing needs at the intersection of sports and human rights. She has worked on projects that range from supporting the integration of human rights in the governance of international sports federations to engaging UN agencies on sports questions. A major part of her work has been convening international stakeholders to focus on challenges at events from Tokyo to Qatar to the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris. In April this year, the Canadian Olympic Committee became the first national Olympic committee to join the centre as an Engaged Organization.
“We take international human rights principles and apply them to sports issues,” Alison says, whether the issue is trans athletes, sexual abuse or migrant workers’ rights. “It still feels like a start-up—it’s my baby,” she says. “It’s been seven years, building momentum, but I can feel things starting to change, and I definitely want to see that through however long it takes.”
That determination, as much as her love of sports and international affairs, has roots that grew out of Branksome Hall, Alison believes. “Branksome fostered and cultivated a lot of who I am,” she says. “I think of its international-mindedness and its emphasis on female empowerment. I remember the speakers who came to give talks, alums or others, always women doing really cool and innovative stuff.” And now Alison herself is one of those women.
Photo: Mirza Tursić
