Sexual violence in sport: what the government plans to do

For three weeks, French sport has been shaken by an unprecedented accumulation of revelations of cases of sexual violence. The government laid the groundwork this Friday to fight these abuses. At a national convention in Paris, the Minister of Sports, Roxana Maracineanu, unveiled the main measures that will be implemented.

"The first condition to welcome a child in a leisure association or to enroll him in a performance course must be to ensure his safety and his physical and moral integrity," began the Minister of Sports. I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart the athletes who experienced this, the victims who testified. Because in fact, without a freedom of speech, our actions, they do not exist. […] This cause can no longer recede, it can only move forward, ”she added, before detailing four major provisions.

> The appointment of a ministerial delegate. An interdepartmental mission dedicated to combating sexual violence in sport has been launched. General Inspector of Youth and Sports, Fabienne Bourdais, who wrote a report on this subject in 2014, took the lead. It will "coordinate the action of communities, different ministries, federations, and different associations that will intervene".

> The generalization of the integrity check. The integrity check, which the Minister of Sports "intends to generalize" to all sports volunteers, will initially be extended to the French Football Federation (FFF). Designed to check the criminal record, applied to volunteers, this device was tested last fall and is due to end in April in the regional football league of Center-Val de Loire.

“We are going to learn from this before generalization at the level of the French Football Federation. With two million licensees, that will give us a good indicator of how it can happen, ”explained Roxana Maracineanu. Asked about the implementation schedule, the minister did not provide any details.

> Awareness and prevention actions. The executive wants to set up a compulsory training module on the subject of ethics and integrity and intended for sports educators, reports Franceinfo. A code of ethics for sports educators should be drawn up, along the lines of public officials.

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> A strengthening of the ministry's listening unit . Established within the services of the Ministry of Sports for several months, the listening cell dedicated to the processing of reports of sexual violence would go from three dedicated people to six.