Preventing Gender-Based Violence Through Sport

During NO MORE Week in March 2026, we launched Brazil Says NO MORE, a new national chapter to anchor the initiative in the host country of the 2027 Women's World Cup and carry its work beyond the tournament.

The launch was built in strategic partnership with UN Women, UNESCO, and Empresa Brasil de Comunicação (EBC), with support from Embratur, the Cristo Sustentável Consortium, and Visit Rio. It aligns directly with Brazil's National Pact Against Femicide, which unites all three branches of the Brazilian government in the fight against violence and prioritizes protection for Black, Indigenous, and rural women, who face the highest risks.

Our flagship PSA, produced with EBC and backed by the Brazilian Football Confederation, features football legends Formiga, Cafú, and Raí alongside coach Carlo Ancelotti, each saying NO MORE to the myths and excuses that allow violence to continue. By putting some of the most trusted voices in Brazilian football behind the message, the campaign calls on women and men alike to take shared responsibility for cultural change.

The initiative was introduced to a national audience on TV Brasil's Sem Censura, where First Lady Rosângela "Janja" Lula da Silva, Daniela Grelin, and Antonia Pellegrino discussed how football can unite the public to protect women and girls.

To mark the launch, Christ the Redeemer was lit in NO MORE's signature teal in solidarity with survivors. Nearly 300 people attended the ceremony in Rio de Janeiro, including Brazil's First Lady and leaders from government, sport, and the private sector. Images of the statue were seen and shared in more than 80 countries, connecting a national commitment to our global movement.

Exactly one year before kickoff, we marked the start of the countdown with a gala concert at the Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, performed by the Rio de Janeiro Youth Symphony Orchestra and joined by Brazilian women's football legends. The evening closed with Christ the Redeemer lit in Brazil's national colors, placing prevention at the center of the World Cup conversation from day one of the countdown.

As the men's 2026 World Cup came to a close, we gathered leaders from sport, government, business, the United Nations, and civil society at UN Headquarters to mark the handover to the Women's World Cup 2027. Alongside FIFA, UN Women, and Brazilian leaders, we called on governments, UN agencies, corporate partners, and sport organizations to commit to concrete action before and during the tournament.

Building on our decade-long partnership with the NFL, we brought the conversation to Rio ahead of the NFL's first regular-season game in Brazil. Hosted at OAB/RJ, the half-day conference convened leaders from Brazil's Ministry of Women, Ministry of Sport, CBF, FIFA, EBC, UN Women, UNESCO, Fight for Peace, and Petrobras to discuss women in Brazilian sport and the social legacy of the Women's World Cup.

Convened by NO MORE and FIFA Master Alumni, the London Safe Sport Summit brings Brazilian, British, and European sport leaders together with NGOs, government representatives, and corporate partners. Through closed working sessions, roundtables, and cross-sector exchanges, participants will agree on practical actions and commitments for safeguarding and prevention across competitions and institutions, culminating in a parliamentary reception at the House of Lords.

Our biggest cultural activation opens on March 7 with a landmark concert on Copacabana Beach featuring leading Brazilian women artists, followed by a week of events, discussions, and activities at Petrobras Futuro. Support is built into the festival itself, with dedicated support spaces, trained personnel, and visible reporting mechanisms, modeling what a safe, inclusive public environment looks like and opening conversations about gender-based violence far beyond existing advocacy networks.

With CONFUT, we are bringing local leadership together in every Women's World Cup host city: Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Fortaleza, Porto Alegre, Recife, Salvador, and São Paulo. Each Women Leaders' Forum takes place on a match day, convening first ladies, mayors, legislators, judges, athletes, activists, and private-sector leaders. Each edition aims to produce a Host City Charter of voluntary commitments and local priorities for preventing violence against women and girls.

With Luta Pela Paz (Fight for Peace), we are building a national program to make sport safer for young women and girls in Brazil:

• Legacy in schools: Educators in public schools across the host cities will be trained in Nós com Elas, focused on keeping girls engaged in sport, and Masculinidades em Jogo, focused on gender equity and masculinities in sport.
• A national framework for safe sport: Guidelines for sporting federations, including a gender-based violence and safeguarding policy, a standardized incident reporting system, and access to a national training platform.

Throughout the 2027 tournament, we're uniting stakeholders to platform the issue of gender-based violence through:

• Global First Ladies Summit: In Rio de Janeiro, NO MORE and partners will convene First Ladies and senior representatives from participating countries for closed-door discussion on policy, prevention, and survivor support, closing with a public declaration of shared commitment.
• Global campaigns: A campaign featuring players from World Cup squads across key markets, and the relaunch of NO MORE's Join the Chorus campaign.
• National awareness campaign: Produced with EBC/TV Brasil and broadcast during sports programming.

Our efforts aim to leave behind a strong social legacy of support, empowering communities to prevent abuse and build stronger pathways to support. We're developing:

• An online hub equipping the sport sector with certified training for coaches, administrators, and PE teachers, downloadable safeguarding policies and toolkits, a resource library, and a partner directory of organizations working on prevention worldwide.
• An innovative app helping users build healthy relationship skills and access digestible educational content and resources.
• The NO MORE Global Directory, connecting survivors of gender-based violence to specialized support in more than 200 countries and territories.