No. 07-00-482/2015-02  Date: 15.12.2015

OPINION

The opinion was issued in the procedure following complaint from S.s.o.K. against the Municipal Council of the Municipality of Kula. The complaint states that Article 14 of the Rulebook on Approval of and Financing the Programmes/Activities to Achieve General Interest in the Field of Sports in the Municipality of Kula stipulates a different scoring for men and women’s selections within the same branch of sports and the same ranking of a competition, that is, that women’s selections are unreasonably scored with fewer points than male selections. The declaration of the Municipal Council states that different scoring of women and men’s clubs is not motivated by the intent to discriminate, but the need to allow funding at the same level as in the previous years when club financing was not regulated by the Rulebook and that points in men and women’s clubs are differently specified, because in the same competition ranking the men and women’s clubs do not have the same number of matches, that is, women’s clubs have fewer matches and they need fewer funds to finance regular competitive activities. During the procedure, it was established that by setting a smaller number of points for women’s clubs compared to men’s clubs competing in the same competition ranking in the same sport, the goals prescribed by the Rulebook (achieving general interest in the field of sports and improving women’s sports) were not achieved, as well as that the proportion between the measure taken and the goal that they wanted to achieve because the goal could be achieved by other measures that would not violate the principle of gender equality and the prohibition of discrimination. The Commissioner for the Protection of Equality expressed the opinion that by prescribing a different number of points for financing competitive activities for women and men’s football and basketball clubs in Article 14 of the Rulebook on Approval of and Financing the Programmes/Activities to Achieve General Interest in the Field of Sports in the Municipality of Kula as of 26 March 2015, the Municipal Council of the Municipality of Kula violated the provisions of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination and recommended to the Municipal Council of the Municipality of Kula to take all necessary actions and measures within its competence in order to eliminate the discriminatory scoring prescribed in Article 14 of the Rulebook which defined a lower number of points for women’s football and basketball clubs competing in the same competition ranking as the men’s clubs, as well as in the future not to violate the provisions of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination.