European Charter on Sport for All: Disabled Persons

(adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 4 December 1986)

Part A

The governments of member states should:

1. take the necessary steps to ensure that all relevant public authorities and private organisations are aware of the sporting and recreational wants and needs, including in education, of all disabled persons - not only those who are physically or sensorially disabled and mentally handicapped, but also those who suffer from an organic or psychosomatic disorder;

2. orientate their policies for such persons so that they may have adequate opportunities to take part in recreational physical activities which will:

a. encourage their feeling of well-being and /or improve their physical condition;

b. provide self-fulfilling leisure-time occupations;

c. encourage social communication both between themselves and between them and able-bodied persons;

3. encourage the appropriate authorities to seek to ensure that public sports facilities are accessible to and usable by disabled persons and to incite these authorities:

a. to consider the need to set aside public money to help with the conversion of existing facilities to meet the building guidelines set down in the appendix to the explanatory memorandum to this recommendation or equivalent national standards;

b. to ensure so far as is possible that future sports facilities will meet these guidelines or equivalent national standards;

c. to take steps to familiarise architects and managers of sports facilities with the requirements of disabled people;

4. encourage co-operation between the various public authorities involved in sport for disabled persons, such as health, social welfare, education and sport departments, and their policies and actions;

5. encourage where appropriate the setting up of an umbrella body for the development of sport for all disabled persons, bringing together all appropriate and relevant interests and expertise;

6. encourage those financing sports activities for all disabled persons as an integral part of rehabilitation and as a continuation of it as well as for its wider general benefit;

7. encourage the development of sport and recreation for disabled persons as an integral part of rehabilitation and as a continuation of it as well as for its wider general benefit;

8. encourage research, as necessary, which will determine scientifically the physiological, psychological, social or other benefits of sport for different categories of disabled people, together with other research which may be deemed to be appropriate;

9. encourage educational authorities to take sufficient steps to provide adequate and real physical education for disabled children in schools, and to train to the required level those who may teach these children;

10. encourage the provision of opportunities for disabled persons who so desire to train as physical education teachers;

11. encourage the provision of training of disabled and able-bodied instructors to work with recognised competent sports organisations;

12. ensure that when sports policy is being decided the interests and views of disabled persons are given due consideration;

13. ensure, within their constitutional limits, that this recommendation is also observed by the appropriate regional and local authorities with competence in any of the areas mentioned above.

Part B

The governments of member states should encourage and work closely with the sports organisations concerned in order:

1. to develop appropriate activities at all levels of sport for disabled persons and to ensure in particular that recreational participation in sport is adequately provided for;

2. to consider ways in which disabled persons may be offered opportunities for integrating into traditional sports clubs and organisations;

3. to encourage disabled persons to contribute directly to the development of sports policies which concern them;

4. to ensure that in their policy-making and decisions the sporting interests of all disabled persons are taken into due account;

5. to recognise that disabled persons may aspire to elite sport and to participate in it according to their abilities and to ensure that the organisation of such competitions does not in any way lead to the exploitation, whether physical, psychological or financial, of possible participants;

6. to continue the efforts, at national, regional, and local levels, and within the competent international sports organisations to harmonise, simplify and, where appropriate, to reduce the classification categories and the eligibility criteria for participation at competitions between disabled persons;

7. to intensify efforts to enable disabled persons, insofar as they may desire to do so, to compete in the same events as the able-bodied, while preserving the principle of fair and equal competition;

8. to intensify the co-operation of their activities, with a view to eventual unification, both at international level and at national level, in the body described at Article 5 of Part A;

9. to develop policies designed to give the general public more information on sport for disabled people.