17 Oct 2016

 Over the past two decades, various directives and recommendations on how to address sexual harassment and abuse in sport have been developed and implemented by a range of international organisations and political structures.
This was said by South Africa deputy minister of sport and recreation, Gert Oosthuizen at the Africa Women in Sport conference in Gaborone recently.
He said the Brighton Declaration from the first world Conference on Woman and Sport held in 1994 provided an international framework for action towards achieving gender equality in sport.
Furthermore, he said the United Nation published the report Woman, Gender Equality and Sport  in 2007
He said in May 2013, member states of UNESCO adopted the Declaration of Berlin and the Declaration recognised that an environment of discrimination was fundamental to quality physical education and sport.
Oosthuizen said the International Olympic Committee played a major role in efforts to eliminate harassment and abuse in sport, the  commitment  that was to align with the belief to the IOC that the practice of sport was a human right that could not be denied on this basis of gender race or sexual orientation
Talking about the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, he said it was important that delegates aligned their deliberation and work at the conference with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.
He said the agenda for sustainable development outlines a new plan global development with the ambition to ‘transform our world by 2030’’ central to the 2030 Agenda are 17 sustainable Development Goals that are replacing the Millennium Development Goal in providing the key reference point for global development efforts.
“Of significant for the sport sector is that the 2010 agenda recognised sport as an important enabler of sustainable of sustainable development.it is therefore important for the sport sector to identify and focus on the areas where the sector could  make meaningful contribution in an  endeavor to achieve the SDGs.
On other issues, Oosthuizen told the conference that there were so many woman who are providing Africa with shining example of what could  be done to develop sport in communities, cities, towns our provinces countries and on the continent. ENDS