Recog­nis­ing the need for change with the in­crease in in­ci­dents re­lat­ing to racism, gen­der in­equity and oth­er forms of neg­a­tive dis­crim­i­na­tion across the glob­al sports in­dus­try, the Sport In­tegri­ty Glob­al Al­liance (SIGA) on Mon­day es­tab­lished a Stand­ing Com­mit­tee, which will be chaired by T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) pres­i­dent Bri­an Lewis to deal with the is­sue.

This new Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Race, Gen­der, Di­ver­si­ty, and In­clu­sion is an­oth­er vi­tal step tak­en by SIGA to pro­mote good gov­er­nance in Sport.

"It's ad­vo­cat­ing for re­al equal­i­ty of treat­ment, jus­tice and mer­i­toc­ra­cy in glob­al sports gov­er­nance. Tack­ling sys­temic racism and racial and gen­der dis­crim­i­na­tion and in­equal­i­ties," said Lewis yes­ter­day. "The SIGA Stand­ing com­mit­tee is a sig­nif­i­cant step."

Ac­cord­ing to a re­lease from SIGA, the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee will build up­on the im­por­tant work of a mul­ti-stake­hold­er Task Force that SIGA es­tab­lished ear­li­er this year on the same top­ic, lead­ing to a se­ries of cut­ting edge rec­om­men­da­tions that were pub­licly an­nounced just two months ago dur­ing the first-ever Sports In­tegri­ty Week.

Such rec­om­men­da­tions in­clud­ed a re­view of the SIGA Uni­ver­sal Stan­dards on good gov­er­nance in sport to in­clude new evolv­ing good prac­tices in this area, such as un­con­scious bias train­ing for em­ploy­ees of sports or­gan­i­sa­tions, by way of ex­am­ple of a new gold stan­dard.

“The SIGA Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Race, Gen­der, In­clu­sion and Di­ver­si­ty is his­toric and sig­nif­i­cant with an in­cred­i­ble op­por­tu­ni­ty to be a force and cat­a­lyst for pos­i­tive change with­in glob­al sports. To be asked to chair the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee is an awe­some ho­n­our and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. Com­ing from a small Caribbean is­land it’s a sig­nif­i­cant state­ment of in­clu­sion and di­ver­si­ty by SIGA," said Lewis, who is al­so pres­i­dent of the Caribbean As­so­ci­a­tion of Na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tees (CANOC) and mem­ber of the SIGA Coun­cil.

He will have the sup­port of Ju’Riese Colon, CEO of Unit­ed States Cen­ter for Safe­S­port, as the Vice-Chair.

“I am proud to help lead SIGA’s ini­tia­tives around race, gen­der, di­ver­si­ty, and in­clu­sion, as we work to­ward sport en­vi­ron­ments in­clu­sive of all ath­letes. Lev­el­ling the play­ing field and cre­at­ing sys­temic cul­ture change be­gins with pro­mot­ing ath­lete safe­ty and well-be­ing. I wel­come the op­por­tu­ni­ty to ap­ply what we have learned here in the US and to work with ex­perts from around the world with the goal of in­flu­enc­ing change on a glob­al scale," said Colon in the re­lease.

Emanuel Mace­do de Medeiros, Glob­al CEO of SIGA and Chair­man & CEO of SIGA AMER­I­CA, added that each per­son has a part to play in the process.

“Look around us. Can any of us be in­sen­si­tive to what’s hap­pen­ing around us and pre­tend it’s not our busi­ness? Of course, not! Sport can do more. Politi­cians and busi­ness lead­ers can do more," he said.

"Each one of us can do a lot more to erad­i­cate racism and in­equal­i­ty, in all its forms, from Sport and, through Sport, from our so­ci­ety. And, if we can, we must!

"As we en­ter in­to a slow and painful re­cov­ery from the glob­al pan­dem­ic, there is no bet­ter time to re­mem­ber that, in Sport as in life, re­gard­less of race, gen­der, place of birth, zip code, re­li­gious be­liefs or sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion, every­one must be en­ti­tled to the same rights and op­por­tu­ni­ties as oth­ers.

"This is a fun­da­men­tal hu­man right, and it is our moral im­per­a­tive to do every­thing in our pow­er to make sure that re­spect, tol­er­ance and equal­i­ty are more than just words. With the SIGA Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Race, Gen­der, Di­ver­si­ty and In­clu­sion we will muster the lead­er­ship and fos­ter the nec­es­sary cul­ture change.”

The oth­er mem­bers of the com­mit­tee are Affy Sheikh (Head of Star­lizard In­tegri­ty Ser­vices, SIGA Mem­ber), An­gela Smith (Chair, Stoke City Sup­port­ers Coun­cil, Mem­ber of GB World Cham­pi­on Squash Team & SIGA Men­tor), Arun Kang OBE (CEO, Sport­ing Equals), Den­sign White MBE (CEO, IM­MAF, SIGA Mem­ber), Karin Ko­rb (Wheel­chair Ten­nis 2-Time Par­a­lympian & 10 -time mem­ber of USA World Team & SIGA Cham­pi­on), Michelle Chai (COO, Olympic Coun­cil of Malaysia & SIGA Men­tor), Stacey Copeland (First British Woman to win the Com­mon­wealth ti­tle for box­ing and SIGA cham­pi­on), Tay­lor Green (Mem­ber, SIGA Youth Coun­cil & SIGA Mentee).