Strengthen the control of the integrity of educators, increase the sanctions against leaders who do not act: the deputies of the Committee on Cultural Affairs and Education unanimously adopted, Wednesday February 14, a proposal bill of socialist senators, passed in June 2023 by the Senate, which aims to strengthen the protection of minors in sports clubs.
The National Assembly will examine this text in a public session on February 29 “as part of the parliamentary initiative day of the group of socialist and related deputies”announced Claudia Rouaux (Socialist Party), rapporteur on this bill.
While the parliamentary commission of inquiry dedicated to the dysfunctions of sports federations noted in its report, at the end of January, the persistence “a large-scale phenomenon and an omerta” with regard to sexist and sexual violence, the bill, which was adopted in the Senate with the approval of the government, aims to better prevent and “to be able to act more quickly” in this matter.
It establishes an annual check of the background of sports educators – the check of good repute – and not a check prior to taking up duties, as has been the case since 2022, the date of implementation of this measure.
This annual check must be carried out both through consultation of bulletin no 2 of the criminal record and that of the automated judicial file of perpetrators of sexual or violent offenses (Fijais). This double obligation is motivated by the fact that “certain convictions can be erased from B2 as early as six months after the date of conviction at the request of the convicted person”while they “remain registered with Fijais for at least twenty years”.
The ban on practicing will also be imposed when the person has been convicted abroad for acts which, if committed in France, would have resulted in incapacity.
The bill also requires presidents of sports clubs to report risky behavior by educators or any person in contact with minors to state services, under penalty of sanctions.
The temporary or permanent ban on managing a club would apply in three cases: the employment of a sports instructor who does not meet the criteria of good repute, the refusal to report risky behavior and the behavior of the manager -even posing a threat to practitioners.
In the event of non-compliance with this administrative measure, the club manager concerned faces a penalty of one year’s imprisonment and a fine of 15,000 euros.