The Council of Europe and the European Union are today launching the “All In Plus” project during a day-long event in the framework of the Icelandic Presidency of the Committee of Ministers. The hybrid event brings together representatives of public institutions and the sport movement, as well as academics, journalists, athletes and other experts. A high-level opening ceremony will be followed by four thematic panels, addressing recurrent challenges and sharing ideas and solutions to improve gender equality in sport.
The Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Bjørn Berge, highlighted the importance of the project:
“To make sport more attractive to girls, real change is needed. We need to make sports events and facilities less male-dominated or intimidating and make the anti-doping process fairer to female athletes. The Council of Europe is currently working on new standards on safety, security and service in sports events which will help national authorities, sports organisations and others to be more welcoming, including for women”, he said.
The event was opened by Marja Ruotanen, Director General of Democracy and Human Dignity, Council of Europe, Themis Christophidou, Director General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, European Commission, João Paulo Correia, Secretary of State for Youth and Sports, Portugal, Óskar Þór Ármannsson, Head of the Sport Unit, Ministry of Education and Children, Iceland, Presidency of the Committee of Ministers.
The key objectives are to ensure that the relative invisibility of women in sport and the continuing lack of awareness about gender imbalance in sport and related issues are brought clearly to the forefront.
The project is structured around three pillars:
- Data collection and analysis in six key areas (leadership, coaching, participation, media/communication, gender-based violence in sport, gender equality policies and programmes);
- Creation of an online resource centre highlighting best practice examples;
- Work with and through the media to ensure greater awareness-raising about gender inequalities in sport.
After the screening of the documentary “A land shaped by women”, the film director and snowboarding world champion Anne-Flore Marxer is taking questions from the public.
The Council of Europe and the European Union are pursuing their co-operation in the field of gender equality in sport in the framework of the joint project “All In Plus” (March 2023 – March 2025). The EU High-Level Group on Gender Equality in Sport highlighted the success of the joint EU-CoE project “All In” (March 2018 – October 2019) and stressed the need to develop and implement it further (“Towards more gender equality in sport: recommendations and action plan from the High-Level Group on Gender Equality in sport” (2022)).
