Open Forum

"PRACTISE WHAT YOU PREACH" José María Arroyo President of the General Council of ONCE and the Spanish Paralympic Committee     The associations of disabled persons have very different traditions and roots. All of them - each in its own field - have nonetheless contributed to obtaining certain achievements which, at this moment in time, following years of advances and setbacks, could be said to be universally accepted. Amongst them, there is one that represents a fundamental conquest for most of us - and is one for which the Spanish National Organisation for the Blind (ONCE), which I have the honour to chair, has been carrying the torch for some time now. I refer to the autonomy of our organisations, to the democratic nature of their structures and to the assumption of the respective responsibilities by their own members: those men and women afflicted by a certain disability. In this context, the ONCE feels that these groups should practise what they preach, all over the world and in all those forums or sectors of activity in which they are present: obviously, this also applies to the world of SPORT. We must be pioneers, with an unquestionably firm stance, in the outright defence of the right and obligation of each disabled group to represent themselves, to adopt the decisions corresponding to each of them and to defend their demands with all the strength that their rights and their representative character afford. The Paralympic Movement has recently become a truly international banner for all disabled persons. The social recognition of the sporting standard of our athletes, the significance of the competitions in this sector (and, most especially the Paralympic Games), etc. all grant our sport a paradigmatic nature as a means of expression and social contact, on the road to achieving the effective integration of those persons with some physical, mental or sensorial limitation. Fully aware of this reality, the organisation I chair has been putting every effort into promoting sport: with a policy aimed at motivating all blind persons in Spain and, for reasons of solidarity, at supporting the blind in the developing countries, through cooperation in projects organised internationally by IBSA. And also in Spain, through the promotion of sport for persons with other handicaps, with whom we are united within the Spanish Paralympic Committee, which I also have the honour to chair, following the democratic decision of its members. From such premises, we could do no less than unequivocally back the role of the International Federations of sports for persons with different types of disability. We have to recognise their rights as the legitimate representatives of the groups they serve, in consequence with a stance that derives from our own global conception of associativity and from our clear support for democratic processes. The agreement reached in Lausanne, under the patronage of Juan A. Samaranch - ever attentive and concerned about the progress of Paralympic sport - cannot, therefore, but fill us with satisfaction and leave us with the justified hope that, in the future, the relationship between the IPC and IBSA - and the other International Federations - will be guided by cordiality and the solidarity inherent in the defense of our common interests.

"REFLECTIONS ON THE LAUSANNE AGREEMENT"     Brian Scobie IBSA Technical Officer and Athletics Subcommittee Chairman     The Agreement signed in Lausanne seems to me a possible turning point in the relations between IBSA and IPC, a document that clarifies their relationship with one another, and importantly gives to their roles the endorsement of the President of the International Olympic Committee. It is true that the detailed implementation of this renewed partnership will have to be worked out, because of course the document is not explicit about these things and may even still provoke questions that need to be resolved, but if we can go forward in the spirit of the direction offered to both parties by Mr. Samaranch I think the world of Disabled Sport as a whole will be the stronger for it. As much as anything written in the document indeed, it was Mr Samaranch´s indication that strength and unity came from permitting independence to individual federations that epitomised the spirit of the occasion, and the direction I hope we are now taking together. It is, of course, important to have the Lausanne document speak of the respect due to the automy and authority of IBSA, and to confirm the right of IBSA to maintain its own championshis at Regional and World level where appropriate. And also to have IPC confirm that technical representatives of IBSA should be an integral part of the IPC Sport Assembly Executive Committees. With these assurances, IBSA will no doubt be able to contribute its strength to the Paralympic Movement as whole, without feeling that its own proper interests and ambitions have had to be compromised. I should also say a word about the presence and influence of ONCE in these negotiations, and the fact that Jose Maria Arroyo, the ONCE President was also a signatory to the document. ONCE's support of all disabled groups through the ONCE Foundation in particular is an indication that there is no hostility between the Blind organisations and other disability groups or interests. IBSA is deeply indebted to ONCE, but the propriety of their influence was demonstrated by the fact it was only after the Agreement had been secured that ONCE offered its full support to the proposed IBSA World Championships in Madrid in 1998. It should be pleasing to all concerned that a difficult passage in relations between IPC and IBSA seems now to be behind us. With good will we can now work to give shape to what we all hope is this newly confirmed relationship of mutual support.