‘respect for and responsibility towards oneself and others.’ from the Swiss Charter for Ethics in Sport.
One of the aspirations of Swiss HEMA is to promote and broaden the appeal of the sport in the wider-community. However, broadening the appeal of HEMA requires that Swiss HEMA – as a federation, member clubs and individuals – should strive to be truly open, welcoming and friendly to all. Yet, such Openness requires that, across our activities, there is a conscious effort to ensure equality, a respect for diversity and to support more inclusion. Furthermore, so that Swiss HEMA’s activities are welcoming, safe, and supportive of all participants, we must also provide certain policies, protections and protocols around participation. This approach is known as Safeguarding and it denotes those measures taken to protect the health, well-being and rights of individuals so that they can participate free from abuse, neglect, harassment, prejudice or discrimination. As such, Swiss HEMA looks to follow Swiss Olympics’ nine principles of the Charter for Ethics in Sport [EN / DE / FR / IT]. This charter requires a ‘respect for and responsibility towards oneself and others’ in sport and, as a federation, Swiss HEMA has resolved to:
- Be Respectful: By epitomising and embodying an attitude of openness (equality, diversity and inclusivity) towards all persons regardless of their personal background (gender, sexual orientation, age, abilities, civil status, religion or beliefs, ethnicity or national origins).
- Be Responsible: By developing and maintaining safeguarding protections and protocols for HEMA participation. With measures taken to protect the health, well-being and human rights of individuals, and to address any issues arising from prejudice or discrimination.
In 2021 Swiss HEMA’s Executive Committee decided to convene an Openness and Safeguarding (O&S) Commission. This Commission investigates the possible avenues and approaches that Swiss HEMA can take to ensure Openness and Safeguarding is embedded across all its activities. As such, the Commission has several linked aims:
- To help identify ways to promote inclusion, equality and openness across the federation’s activities;
- To investigate into and propose safeguarding policies, protocols and approaches for members; and
- To suggest complaints/mediation procedures or approaches to address possible instances of harassment, prejudice or discrimination.
The O&S Commission has developed a scheme to illustrate those elements necessary for a comprehensive and meaningful Openness and Safeguarding strategy:
For a voluntary organisation this is a demanding set of areas and so we follow a step-by-step approach to develop these different elements. This, and the specific Openness and Safeguarding pages, are being updated over time to reflect that development. Swiss HEMA wishes to thank the Oak Foundation for its generous support to the development of our Openness and Safeguarding activities. The O&S Commission currently has two members. Nathalie Strassmann from Winterthur and Robert Atkinson from Geneva. If you have questions, suggestions or wish to help, please contact the O&S Commission members on: safeguarding@swisshema.ch
