The role of the Global Observatory in addressing Gender Based Violence in Sport+

Abstract

Introduction: Gender-based violence, including violence against women and girls, in all their diversity, is a pervasive human rights abuse and a public health crisis of epidemic proportions that has garnered considerable attention in political dialogues and within international institutions. Recently, attention on gender-based violence has extended to sport, physical activity and physical education (PEPAS) contexts. While a broad range of actors across government, intergovernmental, NGO, and sport sectors have begun to take action to address forms of gender-based violence in PEPAS there is a lack of coordinated action between stakeholders and sectors. However, within the sport sector there is the lack of coherent, standardized measurements, indicators, and research methodologies focused on gender-based violence, which are essential for generating accurate data and insights that can benchmark gender-based violence and accurately inform evidence-based policies and programmes, and guide stakeholder investment effectively. Furthermore, there are also major gaps in existing data and knowledge that informs programmes and policies that address gender inequalities such as violence against women in the sports ecosystem (OHCHR, 2020). Therefore, there is an urgent need for action to increase sector coherency, drive coordination and to develop standardised measurements and indicators to measure and guide progress in gender equality and gender-based violence in sport.

Methods: The Global Observatory for Gender Equality and Sport (the GO), in collaboration with stakeholders across the PEPAS sectors that include governmental, UN, civil society, private and academic entities, is developing shared indicators, collating data, insights, and expertise from across the globe to facilitate access and shared learning for impactful policy and service delivery. The Global Observatory contributes to gender equality efforts in PEPAS by facilitating coordination across movements and stakeholders (De Soysa & Zipp, 2019) who often work on similar aims but often in disparate sites.

Results: To date, the Global Observatory has responded to the urgent need to take action to overcome gender inequalities and drive action to address gender-based violence in sport through a range of outputs and with varying results. Primarily, the GO is tasked with mobilising actors to coordinate the development of shared measurement indicators and methods to track progress on gender equality and gender-based violence in PEPAS. Coordinating global action to achieve this task has been met with challenges. The role of developing effective partnerships is foundational to generate the necessary buy in required to mobilise the resources required. Underpinning the development of global indicators, the GO continues to mobilise expertise on gender-based violence to facilitate shared learning and to advance global research agendas.

Conclusion: There is lack of evidence of states comprehensively addressing violence against women and girls in PEPAS. Coherent, standardized measurements, indicators, and research methodologies are essential for generating accurate data and insights that inform state action.

References

OHCHR. (2020). Report on the intersection of race and gender discrimination in sport (A/HRC/44/26). United Nations Human Rights Council. https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc4426-intersection-race-and-gender-discrimination-sportreport-united

De Soysa, L., & Zipp, S. (2019). Gender equality, sport and the United Nation’s system: A historical overview of the slow pace of progress. Sport in Society, 22(11), 1783–1800. https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2019.1651018