The first meeting of the Special Committee of the Council of Europe on Gender Equality (GECA) chaired by Shafag Huseynli, Director of the National Anti -Doping Agency of Azerbaijan (Amada).
At the meeting, the approved composition of the committee was announced in which Azerbaijan is the chairman, and Norway, Denmark, Finland, Poland, Slovenia and Romania are represented as permanent members. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the International Olympic Committee, UEFA and the organization of athletes of the European Union EU Athletes are present here as obsermore members. The committee also includes the secretariat and experts on the gender equalization of the Council of Europe.
The project aroused great interest at the international level. This is evidenced by support from the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and the inclusion of the project in the Charter of the Special European Committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Cahama) for 2022-2025. Report and recommendations on the results of the activities of the Committee and implementation of the project “Strengthening gender equality in the field of anti -doping” will be prepared and submitted to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.
During the meeting, three main areas of GECA were identified. These include ensuring the achievement of the balanced participation of women and men in decision -making in governing bodies of anti -doping organizations, the inclusion of gender issues in international standards and directives, as well as improving gender sensitivity in anti -doping processes.
The process will take place in three stages: 1) analysis of regulations and documents governing the activities of the Council of Europe, the World Anti -Doping Agency and other international anti -doping organizations, including the analysis of the degree of accounting for the Gender Principle in the World Anti -Doping Code and International Standards; 2) conducting polls to determine the level of ensuring gender equality in national anti -doping agencies; 3) interviews with officials from the global sport and anti -doping.
Recall that the decision to create GECA was made at the 55th meeting of the Special European Committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Cahama) in November last year. The committee consists of Chairman of Shafag Huseynli, representatives of the six countries appointed by Cahama and the monitoring group of the anti -doping convention of the Council of Europe, representatives of the European Court of Human Rights, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, its Committee on equality and non -discrimination, the Department of Human Rights and Gender equality, “” Expanded partial sports agreement “(EPAS) and representatives of the Department of Sports Conventions, as well as invited observers and experts.