Sport and Human Rights
At its XXIV Federal Youth Congress, on the 21st and 22nd of May, Solijugend not only elected a new Federal Board of Youth Leaders. In various workshops, the delegates also dealt with a wide range of topics. One of the workshops focused on “Sport and Human Rights”. From this workshop, an initiative motion was formulated, which the Federal Youth Congress adopted with a large majority. The motion is now to be submitted to the Federal Conference of their adult federation RKB in autumn – here is the wording:
Motion to the Federal Conference of the RKB on the topic of sport and human rights
We members of the Solijugend are mainly athletes in the RKB. We practise different sports and are in the tradition of the sports associations with special tasks (VmbA) in the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB). For us, sporting activities are more than competition and winning; sport is a means to create solidarity and understanding between different people and cultures.
Against this background, the delegates at the Federal Youth Congress in May 2022 dealt with the issue of sporting activities in the RKB and established the following:
- Sport in our federation is for everyone;
- Athletes are more than their score. We focus on people and their personal development;
- Performance should be the result of fun and not of pressure;
- We oppose personal violence in any form.
Our ideal is the Olympic idea and that is why we oppose the current form of commercialised Olympic Games, which puts the commercialisation of individuals before respect for human rights. For this reason, we do not want our umbrella organisation RKB to support efforts to make sports Olympic that are native to us, such as indoor cycling or roller figure skating.
We call on the Federal Conference of the RKB in September 2022 to reach decisions on the following topics:
1) How can the RKB develop action concepts for the further development of our federation culture in order to create the framework conditions for a) to d);
2) To achieve a redefinition of its membership in the DOSB and to use the round of VmbA to publicly advocate for points a) to d);
3) The RKB, together with the other federations of the VmbAs, advocates for the renewal and modernisation of the German sports funding system, with the aim of ensuring that competitive sports continue to be possible, but with a greater focus on grassroots sports.
We offer our support to the RKB in the necessary processes and work. We believe that we have to take these steps together in order to continue to live the sport in our federation and our subdivisions in a character that suits us – _in solidarity!
The Solidarity Youth of Germany will also deal intensively with the topic of sport, commercialisation and the role of young people in the near future and contribute a well-founded position to the (youth) political and social discourse.
This is our new Federal Board of Youth Leader: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJeH-Umf89g&t=24s
