Unanimously, the National Assembly definitively adopted, Thursday February 29, a socialist bill to better prevent sexual violence against minors in sports clubs. The deputies voted without change for this text from the Senate, where it was unanimous in mid-June.
This law makes the background checks of sports educators annual through consultation of bulletin no 2 of the criminal record as well as the automated judicial file of perpetrators of sexual or violent offenses (Fijais). “This will make it possible in particular to declare incapacity” to exercise, declared the Minister of Relations with Parliament, Marie Lebec.
In addition, club presidents will be required to report risky behavior by educators or any person in contact with minors to state services, under penalty of sanctions.
This text on “honorability in sport” was built by Senator Sébastien Pla with former skating champion Sarah Abitbol. She caused an explosion in the sporting world with her revelations in January 2020 about the rapes perpetrated by her coach when she was a teenager. During a press briefing at the Assembly, Sarah Abitbol welcomed “political unanimity” in favor of the text. ” Its very important. » “We’re not going to give up anything” For “save the new generation”she said.
“Profound changes”
At the Palais-Bourbon, this law echoes the recent conclusions of the parliamentary commission of inquiry into “failures” federations and “omerta on all levels” in matters of ethics and the fight against sexual violence.
“Profound changes must be made in the world of sport”insisted the socialist deputy Claudia Rouaux, rapporteur of the bill, in “paying homage” to the victims.
Several speakers said the importance of adopting this text five months before the Paris Olympic Games (July 26-August 11), see it as a moment “symbolic”. Following the Abitbol affair, the world of French sport had to confront cases of sexual violence, sometimes very old.
Under the leadership of the former minister, Roxana Maracineanu, the Signal-sports ministerial platform was launched in 2020 on sexual violence. This cell “has already made it possible to process more than 1,250 cases of violence, 90% of which are of a sexual nature”specified Marie Lebec.
At the conclusion of the work of the parliamentary commission of inquiry, the ecologist Sabrina Sebaihi nevertheless criticized at the end of January in her report the fact that the platform is “invisibilized”, “undersized” And “very largely unknown”. A communications campaign has since been launched.