The information we have received has come from a variety of delegate sources and cross referencing between different national delegates gives us confidence that what we are sharing with you has happened this weekend in Lausanne.
Just as Congress weekend was about to get underway the world was alerted to the new highly transmissible variant of Covid-19 from the South African region. Because of this, Swiss border control placed a 10-day quarantine on any visitors from Belgium, Southern African region nations and elsewhere that deemed risky.
SUNDAY 28th November, Lausanne, DAY 1.
- ICSD has116 member countries registered but approx. 55 are fully paid up and allowed to vote.
- After 2 hours of debate, Congress finally agreed to accept Kasper Bergmann as Congress Moderator.
- A motion to include a vote for DIHF (International Deaf Ice-Hockey) as an Associate member did not get approval.
- A final roll call confirmed the attendance to 53 delegates (3 or 4 accessing remotely), so the voting majority is set at 27 votes. (Exact numbers will be confirmed by ICSD minutes)
- Congress voted to change the right to amend the agenda at any time during Congress
- Financial Audits of Accounts for 2013-2019 were approved
- The remainder of the day was spent on the Deaf Sport Reform debate. In summary, delegates voted in favour of:
- Associate members gaining fundamental voting rights, equal as national members.
- ICSD Board would be reduced or enlarged in size by including an athlete representative.
- Regional Confederation representatives to get one vote each on the ICSD board
MONDAY 29th November, Lausanne, DAY 2.
The day’s debates were on the current state of ICSD governance and the hosting of the 2022 Summer Deaflympics.
- Over the past two years, ICSD members and followers of Deaf sport have been confused over who is leading the ICSD, is it EB5 – the elected Board members or the RCs who broke away with ICSD Exec Officer Dmitry Rebrov.
- Both groups (EB5 and RCs) were given the opportunity to make statements to the floor and then a vote was taken that accept the Extraordinary Congress as legal.
- After further afternoon discussions on the legitimacy of the ICSD leadership, Congress voted to approve the establishment of an Investigation task force to look into the facts of the whole situation since 2019 and report its findings to the next Congress.
- It has been confirmed that Caxias is now the preferred host for the Summer Deaflympics 2022, this decision was made by the Brazil Deaf Sports Federation and accepted by Congress.
- There appear to be plans in place for Summer Deaflympics 2025 in Japan and Winter Deaflympics 2027 in Korea, Taiwan also plans to host the 2027 Youth Games.
- The final act was the election of an Board to work with limited powers to oversee the Deaflympics, organise Congress and have oversight of the Investigation task force until 2022 when Congress is usually held just before the Opening Ceremony of the Summer Deaflympics in Caxias do Sul, Brazil 1-14th May:
- President – Gustavo Perazzolo
- Vice President World Sport – Yutaka Osugi
- Vice President Youth – David Lanesman
- Members at Large – Yakup Khitir, Kristian Lantto, Adam Kosa and Alexandra Polivanchuk
Two Big Ears 