The signing of declaration follows from the World Sailing Trust’s publication of their Strategic Review into Women in Sailing. The report explores gender balance and makes a case for change to address disparities within the sport.

World Sailing joins the International Olympic Committee, Professional Squash Federation, Cricket Australia, the Ibero-American Council for Sports and Male Champions for Change in Sport as initial signatories of the Declaration.

The global commitment and overall vision for UN Women Sport for Generation Equality Declaration is rooted in the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which informs the Sustainable Development Goals – in particular Goal 5, “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.”

By signing the Declaration, World Sailing is committing to substantial, explicit and measurable actions that will support relevant aspects of the Principles.

World Sailing’s first action in this regard is adopting a Gender Equality Charter, which will sit at the heart of the organisation.

This Charter will include policies to remove all forms of gender-based discrimination and bias. This approach is in line with the IOC’s Agenda 2020, the strategic roadmap for the Olympic Movement.

The scope of the policies under the Charter will encompass: the evolution of the sport of sailing across all disciplines to improve and increase participation, performance and conditions for women athletes, retirement from professional careers for women athletes, development of women’s sailing among National Federations, increasing the representation and contribution of women in sailing governance, administration and technical roles.

The UN Women Sport for Generation Equality Declaration is based around six principles that are aligned to the Beijing Platform for Action:

• Principle 1: Undertake systematic efforts to promote women’s leadership and gender equality in governance models
• Principle 2: Undertake efforts to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls in and through sports
• Principle 3: Undertake to close the gap in investment in women’s sport and promote equal economic opportunities for women and girls
• Principle 4: Undertake efforts to promote women’s equal participation and bias-free representation in sports media, including communications to eliminate harmful gender stereotypes and to promote positive role models
• Principle 5: Undertake efforts to support equal opportunities for girls in sports, physical activity and physical education
• Principle 6: Agree to systematically monitor and publicly report on progress on an annual basis

To find out more about UN Women’s Generation Equality, click here.