Safeguarding

Every athlete and stakeholder, from children to adults, has the right to compete in sport in a safe, welcoming and respectful environment that is free from harassment, abuse, harm, neglect, exploitation, and other forms of non-accidental violence, regardless of identity, background, ability or status.

WFDF is committed to prevention, education, reporting and response across the sport.

Essentials

What does safeguarding mean?

Safeguarding means preventing, identifying and responding to harassment, abuse and other non-accidental violence in the sport. It includes building cultures where participants and stakeholders know their rights, understand warning signs, and can raise concerns safely and confidently.

Who is responsible?Safeguarding is a shared responsibility. WFDF has policies and procedures in place, and each Member National Federation is responsible for adopting and implementing effective measures to protect athletes and all other stakeholders.

What are the respective Rules?

The WFDF Board of Directors unanimously approved the introduction of the Safe Sport Policy in 2020.In the Policy, you will find information about:

• Rights and responsibilities of stakeholders
• Details about the reporting procedures
• Possible sanctions and consequences

What are the different types of harm and abuse in the sport?

To protect the physical and psychological integrity of all members of the s family, the UCI has defined  what it means by forbidden conduct. The different types of harm and abuse are the following:

• Psychological abuse: This is any unwelcome act, including confinement, isolation, verbal assault, humiliation, intimidation, infantilisation, or any other treatment which has the effect of diminishing the sense of identity, dignity, and self-worth.
• Physical abuse: This refers to any deliberate and unwelcome act – such as, for example punching, beating, kicking, biting and burning – that causes physical trauma or injury. Such act can also consist of forced or inappropriate physical activity (e.g. age-, or physique- inappropriate training loads; when injured or in pain), forced alcohol consumption, or forced doping practices.
• Sexual harassment: This covers any unwanted and unwelcome behaviour of a sexual nature, whether verbal, non-verbal or physical, with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person, in particular, when creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.
• Sexual abuse: This is any conduct of sexual nature, whether non-contact, contact or penetrative, where consent is coerced/manipulated or is not or cannot be given.
• Neglect: This refers to failure of a coach or another person with a duty of care towards the athlete to provide a minimum level of care to the athlete, which is causing harm, allowing harm to be caused, or creating an imminent danger of harm.

What educational and learning tools are available?Microlearning courses on safeguarding are available on WFDF Academy for different stakeholders, including athletes, coaches and administrators.WFDF also supports Member National Federations with consultation, templates and resources for implementation at the national level.

Rules and Documents

• Safe Sport Policy

Speak Up and Report

Whether you are an athlete, coach, administrator, official, other support personnel, or anyone else associated with the sport, help keep the sport clean, safe, and fair by reporting misconduct.

All information, no matter how big or small, is important and could be crucial in uncovering integrity violations within the sport.

You can report in a number of ways:

• Via the IOC’s Integrity Hotline at www.olympic.org/integrityhotline
• Via WFDF’s email to integrity@wfdf.sport

The WFDF and IOC Platforms are accessible for anyone at any time to confidentially and anonymously report any suspicious actions that have come to your attention.

Sanctions and Decisions

No sanctions in force at this time.