World Boxing has been founded on the principles of integrity, honesty and excellence and is underpinned by rigorous governance practices that have been built into the Statutes of the organisation and are backed-up by an extensive range of codes and policies that enshrine the principle of independent, third-party oversight and enforcement into all aspects of its work.
The Statutes have been developed following wide-ranging research of best practice in global sporting governance and cover every aspect of World Boxing’s operations including: safeguarding; the health and safety of boxers; refereeing and judging; competition manipulation; election protocols; codes of behaviour and equality and inclusion.
Central to all of these is the principle of independent, third-party oversight and enforceability which World Boxing will ensure by working with the leading independent provider of sport-specific arbitration and mediation services, Sport Resolutions, to create a third-party ethics and judicial procedure that is completely separate from the organisation and will oversee any potential issues and disputes.
This process will work through the appointment of an external, independent Ethics Chief with no connections to the sport who will: advise on issues and disagreements related to the governance and operations of World Boxing; review policies and programmes to ensure they are consistent with World Boxing’s ethics and values; respond to complaints and enquiries of an ethical nature; bring forward issues of ethical importance to the Executive Board and Secretary General; and ensure World Boxing’s operational activities are ethical, fair and transparent.
The Ethics Chief will be nominated independently by a three-person panel made-up of two industry experts with experience of sports governance and a member of World Boxing’s Executive Board. The nomination will be ratified by the Executive Board of World Boxing and the Ethics Chief will serve for a four-year term that will begin and end at the time of the World Boxing Congress.
The Ethics Chief will be the first point of contact for all disputes and will determine, in the first instance, if a complaint needs to be assessed by an independent third-party body.
If an independent third-party body is required to adjudicate on an issue, it will be comprised of up to three people with relevant expertise and will not include anyone from World Boxing which will have no involvement in the process. The decision of the third-party body will be final and the only scope for appeal will be to take the issue to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
To have this level of truly independent oversight and enforceability represents a gold standard in international sporting governance. It means the President and Executive Board are subject to the decisions of the independent third-party board and reinforces the principle that World Boxing’s are elected to serve and act in the best interests of the sport and the boxers.
This process has been written into the World Boxing Statutes and will apply to all aspects of the organisation’s operations. By embedding the principle of independent, third-party oversight into its constitution, World Boxing aims to ensure it has rigorous, enforceable, governance structures that will drive ethical and transparent decision making.
The financial transparency of World Boxing will be enhanced through its appointment of highly respected Swiss auditors with longstanding experience of working with international sport organisations, Fidurev SA, and by having a Swiss bank account subject to some of the world’s most stringent rules on financial compliance.
World Boxing’s Statutes and all of its codes and policies can be accessed in the sections below: