Increased controls and reports, the Senate votes to protect children from sexual violence in sport – Liberation

2023-06-15 16:28:49

Sexual violencedossier

The text voted by senators on Thursday June 15, which has yet to be examined by the Assembly, provides for an annual background check on sports educators and an obligation to report risky behavior by club presidents.

A unanimity. The Senate adopted this Thursday, June 15 a socialist bill to better prevent sexual violence against minors in sports clubs. With this text, supported by the government and which has yet to be examined by the National Assembly, the control of the backgrounds of sports educators will become annual, via the consultation of bulletin n ° 2 of the criminal record as well as the automated judicial file of the authors of Sexual or Violent Offenses (FIJAIS).

Club presidents will also have the obligation to report to state services the risky behavior of educators or anyone in contact with minors, under penalty of sanctions. “Omerta prevails” in sports but “Let’s fight for shame to change sides definitively”, pleaded the author of the bill, Sébastien Pla (PS).

Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra recalled her «boussole», the “zero tolerance”, and actions taken in recent years. Since the revelations of skating champion Sarah Abitbol in January 2020 on the rapes perpetrated by her trainer when she was a teenager, the world of French sport has had to deal with numerous cases of sexual violence, sometimes very old.

Following this case and under the impetus of former Minister Roxana Maracineanu, a ministerial unit on sexual violence was set up and a national convention for the prevention of violence in sport meets every year. Since March 2020, the unit has handled more than nine hundred cases for acts of violence, 90% of which are sexual and “all subjects” are concerned, specified Amélie Oudéa-Castéra.

An automated check of the good repute of any person, including volunteers, working with minors started last year, in the wake of the August 2021 law on respect for the principles of the Republic, which requires the collection of full identities of these people. At the end of May, “nearly a million people have already been checked, and more than 130 incapacities and administrative police measures pronounced”, said the minister.

Empowered clubs

The bill intends to enshrine at the legislative level this control by the State of sports educators, which must be annual. A ban on practicing will be imposed when the person has been convicted abroad for acts which, if committed in France, would have resulted in incapacity.

Clubs will also be held accountable, and a temporary or permanent ban on practicing may be pronounced against their leaders, for example if they employ a sports educator in defiance of integrity checks, or themselves present a danger to practitioners.