Alkass Digital
The Member Federations of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) yesterday voted to adopt a new, independently-drafted Constitution, that will radically overhaul the IWF’s governance of 133 Member Federations represented at IWF’s Constitution Reform Congress held in Doha, more than 2/3 voted in favour of the new measures.
“It was only in October of last year that the IWF was able to come to consensus around appointing independent members to the Reform and Governance Commission (RGC), a critical step in putting the problems of the past behind us,” said IWF Interim President Dr Michael Irani.
“To have adopted an entirely new Constitution after widespread consultation, and in just 10 months during the pandemic, is a real demonstration of the IWF’s determination to move towards a brighter future that is based on solid foundations.”
The new Constitution will establish vital principles including athlete representation, gender equality and independent oversight.
No fewer than three athlete representatives will serve on the reformed IWF Executive Board, while at least 3
Robust eligibility criteria and term limits will ensure that the future IWF Executive Board benefits from a regular influx of new talents and will notably deprive National Federations with a high number of doping cases that will not have access to board-level representation.
“On behalf of the entire IWF, I would like to sincerely thank all those involved in the creation and refinement of this new constitution,” continued Dr Irani.
“Darren Kane, the RGC’s independent chair was tireless in his efforts as were the other independent and IWF members. We are grateful to the ITA, to WADA, to ASOIF and to the IOC for their guidance and of course to our national federations for having the courage to take this bold step.”
Implementing the provisions of the new constitution, the IWF will now move to fresh elections for its Executive Board as soon as is practicable.”
The final constitution will be sent to the member federations in the upcoming days.