Trinidad and Tobago is a signatory to the Brighton Declaration on Women and Sports 1994. The Declaration is undergirded by ten (10) principles. Some of these principles are addressed below.
The first principle deals with the issue of Equity and Equality in Society and Sport. It states that every woman should have equal opportunity to participate in sport regardless of race, colour, language, religion, creed, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, political belief or affiliation, national or social origin.
Resources, power and responsibility should be allocated fairly and without discrimination on the basis of sex. The question that has to be constantly asked is if women and men benefit equitably from access to all forms of resources especially if when the state is the main benefactor. It is quite easy to be satisfied by the fact that resources are disbursed without studying the minute details of the disbursement which may result in reinforcing the existing imbalances between men and women. In the US, Title IX was implemented in 1972 to ensure that “no person in the United States shall on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
The UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 5 reinforces the need for this principle by emphasizing the need for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls through sport
The principle of accessibility to sporting facilities recommends that the planning, design and management of facilities must meet the particular needs of women such as childcare provision and safety. In terms of school and sport, it is stated that girls and boys approach sport differently. Hence, it is recommended that those who are responsible for organizing and implementing sports and recreation take into account differences in values, attitudes and aspirations of goals.
The Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs (MSYA), and SPORTT must ensure through their different programmes and funding contributions that females like males have access to sporting facilities of the same standard while taking into account any specific needs of female athletes. This will go a long way toward removing any form of tokenism toward female engagement in sport.
The principle of High-Performance Sport has been supported by various governments. Athletes such as Cleopatra Borel, Michelle-Lee Ahye have been the recipient of elite athlete funding and support. The MSYA and SPORTT must continue to encourage national sporting bodies to ensure that through its programmes female participation in sport is both promoted and developed in the same manner as they would do for men sport. A clause within the funding provision must emphasize the importance of promoting and developing women and girls in sport.
According to the declaration, “Women are under-represented in the leadership and decision making of all sport and sport-related organisation.” Even if it may be argued that women are involved in the management of sporting organizations, the question that has to be asked is what power and clout they are able to exercise?
According to the Brighton Declaration 1994, every effort should be made to encourage the “number of women coaches, advisers, decision makers, officials, administrators and sports personnel at all levels.” To achieve this goal requires developing a baseline for each of these categories and then developing strategies to achieve specific targets in all sporting disciplines. SDG 5 speaks to this declaration and recent pronouncements by the IOC to increase women involvement in every aspect of the sport is a step in the direction of achieving the leadership principle. But time will tell if the words have been translated into action!
One of the best ways to promote sports development is through rigorous research and the dissemination of knowledge. It is only through research can effective policies be developed for implementation to address the issues that were raised in the Brighton Declaration 1994 and the current UN SDGs. The MSYA and SPORTT have to ensure that national sporting bodies promote the development of women and girls in every aspect of the sport and in the most effective way. Additionally, these bodies have to work with the Ministry of Education (MoE) to ensure sport and physical activity is not only promoted at all levels of the schooling system but also girls are encouraged to participate taking into the account any of special needs such as related to religion and the availability of facilities.
"I don't feel it is necessary to know exactly what I am. The main interest in life and work is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning." Michel Foucault