Freedom to Dance fund setup to challenge IDSF in European Court of Law

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Richard Gleave September 5 at 9:34pm Reply
Freedom to dance has been established as the right of all dancers over many years. I believe that the freedom to dance cannot be granted by only one organisation. Freedom to dance is based on fairness, integrity and principle. When force is needed to prevent people from dancing, then human rights are being violated. You have the FREEDOM and RIGHT to dance, according to the Olympic Charter which states:

1. Olympism is a philosophy of life ........ blending sport with culture and education. Olympism seeks to create a way of life ....... for universal, fundamental ethical principles.

4 . The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual MUST HAVE the possibility of practising sport (dance), WITHOUT DISCRIMINATION OF ANY KIND which requires mutual understanding, with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and FAIR PLAY.

5. Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or OTHERWISE is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.

The actions of the IDSF go completely against the Olympic Charter and therefore we have decided to set up a legal fund to challenge their actions in European Law from any profits that derive from the Freedom to Dance Competition in May next year.

Best wishes,

Richard

Richard Gleave September 13 at 9:33pm Reply
Dear All,

Since the inception of Freedom to Dance Facebook in January 2010, a number of people have been working hard to find solutions to the current turmoil in our dance business. I have great pleasure in announcing recent developments in our fight for Freedom to Dance.

Freedom to Dance would like to publicly thank Mr. Gerard Binnendijk and Mr. --------- ------ for all their hard work and initiatives with UNESCO. They have been fantastic! Subsequently, I have been in touch with, and have been asked to become a member of CID - UNESCO (Council of International Dance - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation).

The President of CID - UNESCO will take the initiative to call a top level meeting, where heads of major Ballroom Dance Organisations will be invited to discuss. The meeting will take place within the Palais de L'UNESCO in Paris after preliminary consultations.

The Executive Director of CID - UNESCO has written that the World of Dance needs to evolve in peaceful co-exsistence for the benefit of all.

Through the help of Gerard and Barry we have brought "this case" up to the highest level we have in our "world society" and hopefully it will help to prevent further discrimination against all Junior, Amateur and Professional Dancers alike.

I am sure you will all agree that this is great news and offers a "ray of hope" for the future and Freedom to Dance.

Regards,

Richard

We have a problem (Our freedom of Speech and expression is at stake)

Each time I read of a new restriction to one of our fellow dancers and a proposal how to stop the fellow dancer to dance or a professional colleague to execute his privileges to work as a coach, adjudicator I know it will impact the general situation of our Ballroom Dance World.

I feel like keying the mic button and saying: “New York, United Nations, we have a discrimination problem”. You know, just to see if anybody’s listening.

That’s because our freedom to dance is at risk.

Risk – now that’s a word that’s used a great deal, however, I don’t think its meaning is understood when it comes to our beloved Ballroom Dancing. When someone or something that we value can be taken away from us, denied to us, damaged or destroyed, it is at risk.
The reason why it is at risk is another matter. Perhaps Mother Nature takes the form of a tornado or hurricane and puts us, our families, or something that we want to protect –like our family – our pats – at risk. The cause behind the risk is the threat.
Threats are real and substantial. Threats are the reason we purchase insurance. Insurance companies rate how likely we are to suffer a loss from a threat. They call these ratings exposures. Well my fellow dancers, we are exposed. And it’s not to Mother Nature.
Threats – other than those from the environment or weather – are caused by human beings. Threats cause us to make changes to our plans and actions. They affect our Freedom to Dance. They affect our decisions where and when to dance. I’ve been reading an article in a Swiss Notice to Dancers (STSV = IDSF) that they now execute background checks on dancers (amateurs and professionals) whether they are linked up with the WDC and WDC-AL.
I do risk assessments professionally. There are three different elements involved in an objective risk assessment. Consequence is the value an asset has. If there’s no value in something, why waste time and resources protecting it? Next, there’s the threat. Threats make use of a particular tactic to exploit a vulnerability, which is the third element used in a risk assessment. Why is vulnerability important?
I have some bad news. The world is full of vulnerabilities. I’m vulnerable to being killed by a crashing satellite. I can be run over on the pedestrian crossing or using the subway.
What keeps me from building an underground bunker and living like a mole is the knowledge that the probability an orbiting satellite (the threat) could come careening down and kill me by imparting a lethal dose of kinetic energy (the tactic) while I’m not surrounded by a structure that would protect me (my vulnerability) is extremely small. We make adjustments to our plans and actions based upon the level of risk. It’s because of that extremely small and mostly hypothetical threat that I don’t spend the money to build an underground shelter and hide from those pesky satellites.

Our Ballroom Dancing World is valuable to us. Professionals and Amateurs alike.
If not, we probably wouldn’t bother going through all the discussions and hassle we have been through the last couple of years in the dispute between the WDC/WDC-AL and IDSF.
Our challenge is in knowing the threat and the specific tactic that particular threat would most likely use. The worst case threat against which we design a system of security is known as the Design Basis Threat.
Remember the report that says the threat is “mostly hypothetical” – that means there’s no Design Basis Threat. And since no one is sharing any threat information to the contrary, the only threats to our Ballroom Dancing is coming in the form of Rulemaking from the IDSF. The Freedom To Dance World does not have such a history.
So let us all bear this in mind, that we live in a free world, and that we, the dancers decide whether we are going to be free in the future or give hand that the freedom is taken away, dictatorship is posed upon us and we never gave any resistance.
History will tell (soon). The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Blackpool, The International, Assen (Dutch Open) and other great competitions are coming up. We the dancers have to decide.
Moshe Lévy, Chicago September 16, 2010

copied from dancesportinfo.net

Re: Very Interesting. It is not legal!!

Freitag, 17. September 2010 13:29

An IDSF National Organisation has recently sough legal guidance on the subject of bans.

They have been advised that if they banned a couple within their country for simply dancing in a competition who then brought legal action, the Organisation would undoubtedly Lose. Furthermore the couple could receive damages that would leave the Organisation bankrupt. Guess they will not be banning couples!

How much longer is this ridiculous protectionist, repressive banning policy going to continue wonder.. Simply by the ever growing number of so called "Unregistered Events" it is evident that the policy is a failure.

Maybe it is the same in your country. It should be if your country respects Freedom and Human Rights and believes in the aims of the Olympic Charter.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

General Assembly res. 217A (III), 10 December 1948


Preamble

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, therefore,

The General Assembly,

Proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.


Article 1

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11

1. Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.

2. No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 13

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State.

2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14

1. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.

2. This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 15

1. Everyone has the right to a nationality.

2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Article 16

1. Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.

2. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.

3. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 17

1. Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.

2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

2. No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 21

1 . Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.

2. Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country.

3. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 22

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 23

1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.

2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.

3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.

4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 24

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25

1. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

2. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26

1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

2. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Article 27

1. Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.

2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 28

Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29

1. Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.

2. In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.

3. These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30

Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

Richard Gleave

Dear Dancers,

We have recently received an e-mail from CID-UNESCO, which is encouraging news, and I hope will lead the dancing World to the solution of the turmoil that we have at the moment.

Below is the letter sent to me by UNESCO-CID:
...Dear Richard Gleave,

A preliminary meeting to decide on procedures has been scheduled to take place in Cordoba, Spain, on the occasion of the Congress taking place there 1-5 December.

Unfortunately, we have no reply from the President of IDSF. It will be a short trip for him from Barcelona. Mr. Donnie Burns, President of the World Dance Council has agreed to attend.

Matters to be discussed are the date of the meeting in Paris, who will be invited there, the agenda etc. We would be happy if Mr. Bryan Allen could attend or send a representative.

Sincerely

Ada Angeli