SUCCESS IN THE WE STAND WITH LAMA CAMPAIGN
Updated: Nov 13, 2020
After months of determined campaigning, we are delighted to announce that a small but significant breakthrough has been made in the #WeStandWithLama campaign.
The International Handball Federation have been in contact to inform us that they will be launching an investigation into Egyptian Handball.
It comes in response to a recent letter sent by equitysport co-signed by almost 50 international athletes and coaches in world sport calling for an investigation into female representation and gender discrimination in Egyptian Handball.
The IHF confirmed that:
“We [the IHF] addressed the Egyptian Handball Federation again and they confirmed that they will send us an official answer. Once we receive it, the IHF Women’s Handball Working Group will follow up with an investigation in the matter.”
Representatives of equitysport responded on the 17th September with the following questions. The IHF is yet to provide any response.
- What is the deadline for the EHF to send an official response to the IHF?
- Who makes up the IHF Women’s Handball Working Group?
- What is the scope of their investigation?
- How long is the investigation scheduled to last?
- Will the findings of the investigation be made public?
equitysport reiterates our calls for transparency from the International Handball Federation and urge a timely response from the IHF on the above questions.
Further, Tim Harper, Chief Executive at equitysport has made the following short statement:
“Whilst we are grateful to the IHF for their commitment to launch an investigation into female representation and gender discrimination within Egyptian Handball, it is becoming increasingly galling that each step forward in the resolution of this issue is followed by extended periods of determined stalling and silence.
It seems the only way to attain any sort of consistent transparency from the IHF is to embarrass the organisation into a response by ratcheting up our level of public campaigning.
We would like to remind the IHF at this time that a number of our other demands are yet to be met, including the immediate disclosure of how the Egyptian Handball Federation was deemed to be in compliance with Article 4 of the IHF Statute on discrimination when it was awarded the World Handball Championship for 2021; throwing the legitimacy of that event into question. We look forward to hearing from them about their planned investigation and our other demands very soon.”
To find out more about the #WeStandWithLama campaign, click HERE.
Notes to Editors
For interviews, further comment or for introductions to key stakeholders, please contact the team via campaigns@equitysport.org