World Association of Kickboxing Organizations

The WAKO Women in sport Committee is one of the expert’s committees in WAKO, established in 2016, aimed for promotion of gender equality and generation equity in kickboxing. 
 

CAMPAIGNS

Women in sport Committee is organizing various campaigns for promoting gender equality and raising awareness about global phenomena such as:

• Emowering women in sport – Her win, Our win

• climate changes – WAKO for Climate, 

• health - WAKO Women against Cancer, 

• pandemic - Be Positive, Stay Negative, 

• breaking stereotypes about gender roles – He For She, 

• stopping violence against women and girls – UN Orange Day, 

• sustainable development - Plastic is NOT fantastic

• and many, many others, mostly the ones which affects women and girls in everyday life. 
  
   

All of the campaigns had accompanying actions in occasion of the World and Continental Championships.

 

MONITORING

Concerning kickboxing sport, the Committee is monitoring all legal documents of WAKO concerning the position and the representation of women in the decision making bodies of WAKO and its Committees. The focus of the Committee is attainability of the tournaments in the world to women and girls. The Committee also controls management of kickboxing tournaments if they meet the particular needs of women and girls and provide them safety in sport. 

 

INCREASE OF PARTICIPATION

In WAKO, we already have participants of both genders, and Committee aims to increase the participation of women in all kickboxing disciplines, as well as referees in the ring and tatami, coaches and officials. 

 

BRIGHTON PLUS SIGNATORIES

On the initiative of Women in sport Committee,
in March 2017 WAKO have signed Brighton Plus Helsinki 2014 Declaration on Women and Sport which is a summary
document how to develop a sporting culture to grant women and girls equality in sport at all levels of participation.

 

CONFERENCE

The Committee organized The 1st WAKO Women in Sport Conference on 18th May 2018 in the occasion of WAKO World Kickboxing Cup in Budapest.
The Conference was organized in two parts.
 

The first part was separated in three sections: 

1. Introduction of the WAKO Women Committee Chairwomen Mrs. Katarzyna Kociszewska, activities and the future goals.

2. Lecture by Ms. Alicja Sekret, presenter of "Breastfit" the OnkoCafe Foundation from Poland with
   "Self control- early detection of breast cancer" as the part of the global campaign "WAKO Women against cancer".

3. Expert speaker Ms. Dorota Godzina, former kickboxing champion and expert dietitian with a lecture “Sudden weight loss and consequences for women's health”. 
    

The second part of the programme was introduction of Mrs. Marijana Pelevic, WAKO Women Committee member
about ongoing Conference of International working group of women and sport (IWG) and
the reflection on the activities of WAKO at the GAISF Sport Conference in Bangkok in April 2018.


 

WORKSHOPS

The Committee occasionally organizes workshops “How to involve more women in organizational structures in WAKO”.

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SAFEGUARDING POLICY

The focus of the Committee was to create WAKO Safeguarding Policy to cover all aspects of the safeguarding policies and procedures in protecting kickboxing athletes,
especially minors, from any kind of harassment during WAKO events. 

As a result, on March 12, 2022, the WAKO Board of Directors has approved the 
WAKO Safeguarding Policy of  protecting and safeguarding athletes from harassment and abuse in sport. The Women in Sport  Committee representatives presents the most important aspects of the Safeguarding Policy during the main WAKO events of the year.