Discrimination against women in the field of sport and more particularly in the Olympic Games
Doc. 7544
3 May 1996
REPORT[1]
Rapporteur: Mr DE DECKER, Belgium, Liberal, Democratic and Reformers' Group
Summary
The Assembly condemns discrimination, in particular for religious reasons, against women wishing to practise sport. It believes that no cultural right should be used as an excuse for not respecting fundamental human rights and points out that discrimination based on race, religion, politics, sex or other is incompatible with the Olympic Movement.
The International Olympic Committee is asked to oppose discrimination against women and to refuse to support sport events based on it.
I. Draft resolution [Link to the Adopted text]
1. The Assembly is concerned about the many instances of discrimination against women wishing to practise sport and more especially about the policy of discrimination with regard to their participation in the Olympic Games.
2. At the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992, 35 countries had no women athletes in their teams, and one of those teams refused to walk behind a Spanish woman athlete at the opening ceremony.
3. Some Islamic countries organised women-only games in Teheran in 1993. Men were barred from these games, as were photographers (male and female) and television cameras. Apparently, the International Olympic Committee supports these games which, it has been announced, are to be held for a second time.
4. The Assembly recalls that the Olympic Charter states that "any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, sex or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement".
5. Wherever fundamental human rights are infringed, the Assembly considers it has a duty to intervene in the internal affairs of any state, irrespective of whether it is a member of the Council of Europe. Even if there are cultural differences and traditions, this should be no argument for accepting any policy of discrimination against women in sport.
6. It welcomes the creation of the Atlanta Plus Committee and its action against such situations.
7. The Assembly recalls the positive, leading role played by the International Olympic Committee in moral or ethical issues, particularly with regard to the fight against apartheid in South Africa.
8. The Assembly therefore requests that the International Olympic Committee:
i. firmly and clearly oppose any discrimination against women in sport;
ii. refuses to support any sports event based on discrimination, such as the "Solidarity Games for Women in Islamic Countries".
II. Explanatory memorandum
by Mr DE DECKER
Introduction
1. The matter of discrimination against women in the field of sport and more particularly in the Olympic Games was brought to the attention of the Assembly by a motion for a resolution tabled in February 1995 by myself and a number of colleagues (Doc. 7241).
2. On 5 September 1995 the Sub-Committee on Youth and Sport (of the Committee on Culture and Education) held an exchange of views with Ms Linda Weil-Curiel, a Paris lawyer and member of the Atlanta Plus Committee, which was set up in 1992 to combat discrimination against women in the field of sport.
3. The Sub-Committee intended to invite a representative of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to discuss the issue but this was not possible.
The Atlanta Plus Committee
4. The decision to set up a special organisation was made after the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992, when 35 countries had no women athletes representing them.
5. Atlanta Plus brings together men and women from European countries as well as the United States, Canada, Argentina, Mexico, Algeria, Morocco and Senegal. It points out that discrimination based on gender is contrary to the Olympic Charter and calls on IOC members to respect their oath to that charter.
6. Contending that there is growing discrimination against women in a number of Muslim countries, on 10 January 1995 Atlanta Plus launched a campaign demanding that nations banning women from their delegations be barred from participating in the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996.
7. The Committee feels that sex discrimination is comparable to the racial discrimination that resulted in South Africa's being suspended from the Olympic Games between 1964 and 1992. At the launch of the campaign in January 1995 speakers emphasised that sport was among those areas in which discrimination against women was manifest.
8. Atlanta Plus is trying to mobilise sports federations and put pressure on the large corporations that act as official commercial sponsors for the Atlanta Games. Olympic corporate sponsors have been approached, and in September a letter was sent to the President of the IOC, Juan Antonio Samaranch, demanding that countries excluding women athletes be banned.
The situation in Islamic countries
9. Some of the countries that sent all-male teams to the Barcelona Olympics said that they lacked talented female athletes or funds. "But others had the funds and clearly barred women", says Linda Weil-Curiel.
10. Of the 35 all-male teams at the Barcelona Games, 24 had fewer than 10 members, notably the very small countries such as American Samoa, the Solomon Islands or underdeveloped countries such as Burkina Faso, Swaziland. In the case of these countries it can be conceded (but not accepted) that a lack of funds and the considerable backwardness of sport in general and women's sport in particular account for the absence of women at Olympic level.
11. On the other hand, the 11 other all-male teams (nine of them from Muslim countries), had between 10 and 43 members and it is difficult to believe that the exclusion of women from these teams is not the result of a policy of discrimination.
12. In 1992, the largest all-male delegations were Iran with 40, Qatar with 31, Pakistan with 27 and Kuwait with 36. Of the 9,959 athletes registered as participating in the 1992 Summer Games, 2,851 were women (less than 30%).
13. Iran is the only country to have explicitly banned women from most sports but others are doing so quietly. Iran has banned women from attending soccer matches, advised woman to practise only those sports that can be played while wearing veils, and alone among all nations in Barcelona refused to let a Spanish woman athlete carry the national placard ahead of its team at the opening ceremonies.
14. The Iranians have denounced Atlanta Plus as a "cheap shot at Islam" with a diplomat referring to the boycott threat as an "unjustified attack on the Islamic States." However 17 of the 35 countries that sent all-male teams to Barcelona were not Muslim.[2]
15. In February 1993, Iran organised, with the support of the IOC, a women-only Islamic games in Teheran, drawing teams from Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, the Maldives, Pakistan, Syria, Tadjikistan and Turkmenistan. Competitors wore regular sports clothing in these games, from which men were barred as spectators, coaches and referees. Photographers and TV cameras were allowed only at medal award ceremonies, when athletes wore traditional Muslim dress.
16. In Beijing, at the forum for non-governmental organisations held alongside the United Nations World Conference on Women, the Iranian delegation announced that the second (separate) games for women from Islamic countries would be held in Pakistan, once again with IOC backing, and voiced the hope that such games would serve as a model for the 500 million Muslim women in the world.
17. In Morocco and Tunisia female athletes have said that social pressure against them is hard to bear. In Algeria, Hassiba Boulmerka was widely celebrated after winning an Olympic gold medal in the 1,500-metre race in 1992. But she and her team-mates have said that as they trained on the streets at home, people shouted obscenities and threw stones at them. Boulmerka has also been denounced in several mosques for scandalous behaviour unbecoming of a Muslim woman.
18. Europe is home to many young Muslim women who are barred from practising their sport in their own country. However in recent years Muslim immigrants in France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands have begun insisting that their daughters not participate in sport at school.
The IOC position
19. The Olympic Charter states that "any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, sex or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement".
20. On 25 January 1995 the IOC Director-General Fran�ois Carrard said there would be no response to the letter from Atlanta Plus seeking to ban certain Muslim countries and that this was not an issue for the IOC, although participation of women in sports was a matter of importance and concern.
21. Mr Carrard said that the IOC saw a positive aspect to the Atlanta Plus campaign because it would encourage broader participation by women athletes, but dismissed it as an "attack against a religion for political purposes. Anything that takes the form of boycotts or sanctions is not consistent with the attitude of constructiveness, understanding and tolerance which the Olympic movement likes to pursue".
22. At the NGO Forum which ran in parallel to the Beijing Conference, Ms Anita De Frantz, the only female member of the Executive Committee of the IOC, highlighted the under-representation of women on national and international sporting bodies (7 out of 100 IOC members) and announced that 4000 women were set to take part in the Atlanta Olympic Games. However she remained silent on the issue of women's games in Islamic countries.
23. Moreover the IOC has stipulated that for a sport to feature on the Olympic programme there must be a series of women's competitions at various levels, ranging from regional level to world championships.
Conclusion
24. The problem posed by the exclusion of female athletes from international sports events is mainly attributable to religious rules and traditions and the countries where such exclusion exists often claim their right to preserve cultural differences. From our point of view no cultural right should be used as an excuse for not respecting fundamental human rights and discrimination against women violates such rights.
25. Banning these countries from major international sporting events and particularly from the Olympic Games, as the Atlanta Plus Committee is urging, will clearly not solve the problem. It would only serve to reinforce the position of extremists in these countries and lead them to encourage the policy of isolation that could render any kind of control by the international community of the respect of basic human rights impossible.
26. Yet discrimination clearly exists and even if it is not in a position to bring it to an end, the Parliamentary Assembly should be condemning it vigorously.
27. It should also ask the IOC to take a clear stand on the matter. Without going so far as to ban all-male teams from taking part in the Olympic Games, it should at all events refuse to support the charade of the so-called "Solidarity Games for Women in Islamic Countries".
Reporting committee: Committee on Culture and Education
Budgetary implications for the Assembly: None
Reference to committee: Doc. 7241 and Reference No. 2001 of 15 March 1995
Draft resolution: adopted by 36 votes and 1 abstention on 25 April 1996.
Members of the committee: Sir Russell Johnston, (Chairperson), MM. Berg, de Puig (Vice‑Chairpersons), Arnason, Asciak, Banks (Alternate: Sir Keith Speed), Bartumeu Cassany, Bauer, Baumel, Berti, Mrs Bielikova, MM. Cem, Decagny, De Decker, Dovgan, Mrs Fleeetwood, MM. Galanos, Gell�rt Kis, Mrs Groenver, Baroness Hooper, Mrs Isohookana-Asunmaa (Alternate: Mr Elo), MM. Karas, Kirsteins, Kollwelter, Kouck_, Kriedner, Legendre, Lopez Henares, Mrs Machaira, Malachowski, Marques, Mrs Maximus, Mr Melnikov, Mrs Mihaylova, MM. Mocanu, Mocioi, Mrs Naoumova, MM. Paunescu, Probst, Pulaha, Rivelli, Roseta, Rhinow, Mrs Schicker, MM. Serra, Siwiec, �kol_, Sofoulis, Sudarenkov, Szak�l, Tanik, Mrs Terborg, Mr Vangelov, Mrs Veidemann, Mrs Vermot, Mr Verbeek, Mrs Verspaget, MM. Vogt, Walsh, Ms W�rnersson, MM. Widmann, Yaroshynsky (Alternate: Symonenko), Zingeris
NB: The names of those who took part in the vote are in italics.
Secretaries to the committee: MM. Grayson, Ary and Gruden.
[1]. by the Committee on Culture and Education.
[2]. The following 35 countries sent all-male teams to the Barcelona Olympics: American Samoa, Bahrain, Botswana, the British Virgin Islands, Burkina Faso, the Cayman Islands, the Cook Islands, Djibouti, Gambia, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Niger, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Solomon Islands, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Tanzania, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Togo, the United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, West Samoa and Yemen.