List of international sports federations

This is a list of international sports federations, each of which serves as a non-governmental governing body for a given sport and administers its sport at a world level, most often crafting rules, promoting the sport to prospective spectators and fans, developing prospective players, and organizing world or continental championships. Some international sports federations like the International Swimming Federation and the International Skating Union may oversee multiple sports.

International sports federations form an integral part of the Olympic movement. Each Olympic sport is represented by its respective international sport federation, which in turn help administer their respective events during the Games. For a sport to become an Olympic sport, its respective international sport federation must be recognized by the International Olympic Committee. Likewise, an international sports federation must be recognized by the International Paralympic Committee for its sport to become a paralympic sport.

International Federation of Journalists

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is a global union federation of journalists' trade unions—the largest in the world. The organization aims to protect and strengthen the rights and freedoms of journalists. It is also dedicated to working for solidarity, social justice, labor rights, globalization, democracy, human rights, and fighting poverty and corruption.

First founded in Paris in 1926, the federation was relaunched twice in 1946 and in 1952. Today, the IFJ represents around 600,000 members in more than 100 countries. The main office is located in Brussels, Belgium. Its official languages are English, French, and Spanish

The IFJ states that "The IFJ is the organisation that speaks for journalists within /.../ the international trade union movement." But it claims that they do "not subscribe to any given political viewpoint".

Full membership is open to journalists' trade unions only. Other national organisations of journalists that are devoted to media freedom may be admitted as associate members. The IFJ has regional groups, such as the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) which organizes the Labour Rights Expert Group (LAREG) and the Authors' Rights Experts Group (AREG), the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), and the Federation of Latin American Journalists (FEPALC). It has regional offices in Africa, the Asia-Pacific Region, and Latin America.

International

International mostly means something (a company, language, or organization) involving more than a single country. The term international as a word means involvement of, interaction between or encompassing more than one nation, or generally beyond national boundaries. For example, international law, which is applied by more than one country and usually everywhere on Earth, and international language which is a language spoken by residents of more than one country.

Origin of the word

The term international was coined by the utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham in his Introduction to Principles of Morals and Legislation, which was printed for publication in 1780 and published in 1789. Bentham wrote: "The word international, it must be acknowledged, is a new one; though, it is hoped, sufficiently analogous and intelligible. It is calculated to express, in a more significant way, the branch of law which goes commonly under the name of the law of nations. The word was adopted in French in 1801.Thomas Erskine Holland noted in his article on Bentham in the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica that "Many of Bentham's phrases, such as 'international,' 'utilitarian,' 'codification,' are valuable additions to our language; but the majority of them, especially those of Greek derivation, have taken no root in it."

Federation

A federation (from Latin: foedus, gen.: foederis, "covenant"), also known as a federal state, is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or regions under a central (federal) government. In a federation, the self-governing status of the component states, as well as the division of power between them and the central government, are typically constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a unilateral decision of either party, the states or the federal political body.

The governmental or constitutional structure found in a federation is known as federalism. It can be considered the opposite of another system, the unitary state. Germany, with sixteen Bundesländer, is an example of a federation, whereas neighboring Austria and its Bundesländer was a unitary state with administrative divisions that became federated, and neighboring France by contrast has always been unitary.

Federations may be multi-ethnic and cover a large area of territory (e.g. Russia, the United States, or India), although neither is necessarily the case. The initial agreements create a stability that encourages other common interests, reduces differences between the disparate territories, and gives them all even more common ground. At some time this is recognized and a movement is organized to merge more closely. At other times, especially when common cultural factors are at play such as ethnicity and language, some of the steps in this pattern are expedited and compressed.