EHF Congress strengthens principle of non-discrimination
The 15th Extraordinary EHF Congress followed the Conference of Presidents on Saturday, with both events being held in Luxembourg, and saw several motions related to the EHF Statutes as well as to statutes of the European Handball Court Arbitration (ECA) and to the legal regulations of the EHF being tabled.
Related to the EHF Statutes, the EHF aimed to unambiguously include the principle of non-discrimination relating to gender and gender orientation.
Following the approval of the EHF Congress, Article 1.3 of the EHF Statutes reads (changes highlighted in bold)
“The EHF encourages friendship and mutual understanding among members, does not discriminate on the basis of politics, race, religion, gender or sexual orientation and rejects any illegitimate practices in sports.”
Furthermore, a motion was tabled and passed to recognise English as the sole official language of the European Handball Federation, another one to establish an evaluation group which shall in the future assess the fulfillment of the necessary language competencies of candidates applying for functions within the EHF and a fourth one for the formal assignment of responsibilities to the EHF Executive Committee under special circumstances.
Additional motions tabled related to the statutes of the European Handball Court of Arbitration and EHF Legal Regulations. In particular those motions addressed
- the competence and admissibility of claims to the European Handball Court of Arbitration (ECA),
- the formal admissibility of issues presented, respectively received, by the Court of Handball
- the obligation to answer preliminary questions
- the competence for interim measures
- the enforcement of ECA decisions
All these motions were approved by the EHF Congress.
The next Ordinary EHF Congress is scheduled to take place on 14-15 September 2023 in Basel, Switzerland. The date was moved from 23-24 June 2023, the initial one, following the approval of the 2023 meeting calendar by the EHF Executive Committee on Friday.
Höritsch, Kaiser and Tuik honoured
The end of the Congress was marked by emotions, as EHF President Wiederer took the floor to honour three distinguished members of the European handball family.
Helmut Höritsch, one of the EHF’s first employees who had joined the organisation in 1993 and retired in February 2022, received a special award for his services to the sport.
"Helmut, on behalf of all those who took profit of your work, thank you. As well as for your friendship and loyalty to me, to us, to handball," Wiederer said.
Jeannot Kaiser, former president of the Luxembourg Handball Federation and chairman of the EHF’s Court of Appeal from 1991 to 2004 was declared an Honorary Member.
Jan Tuik, former chairman of the EHF Competitions Commission, member of the EHF Executive Committee and for decades the EHF’s leading technical expert for venue inspections, received a special award on top of his already existing honorary membership.
"I have never met somebody who fulfilled his tasks in such a friendly way, mastered crisis situations and reached what was needed, not for himself, but for European handball," Wiederer said.
The next Ordinary EHF Congress is scheduled to take place on 14-15 September 2023 in Basel, Switzerland. The date was moved from 23-24 June 2023, the initial one, following the approval of the 2023 meeting calendar by the EHF Executive Committee on Friday.
