Protecting Children from Violence in Sport: A Review with a Focus on Industrialized Countries

Because sport plays a significant role in many development programmes as a tool for health and social development and post-conflict reconstruction, and no international study has been made of children’s exposure to violence through sport, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Innocenti Research Centre commissioned a review of the available empirical research and policy initiatives on this subject. "The research with a focus on industrialized countries’ defines the many aspects of the issue, provides examples of both good and poor practice, and makes suggestions for sport organizations to assist them in their violence prevention work."

This research was preceded by an analysis-of-evidence document ‘The Place of Sport in the UN Study on Violence against Children" (April 2010), developed by the same research team prior to this study to find the themes selected for this research.

According to Article 29 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), coaches, volunteers, and professionals in sports are required to “ensure that sport is practised in a culture of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, friendship and fair play among all people.” As stated here: "This study seeks to demonstrate that violence prevention, child protection, and measures to safeguard the well-being of children are generally not yet embedded in sport delivery systems." The document provides recommendations for improvements in:

• Data collection and knowledge generation about violence to children in sport - The study recommends further research, particularly in developing and transitional regions, such as Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean, and on the topics of neglect, physical and psychological abuse, trafficking, and exploitation in sport.
  
• Development of structures and systems for eliminating and preventing violence - The study states that if the benefits of sport are to be fully realised, then collaboration between the agencies responsible for ‘sport for development’ and those responsible for child protection is needed. To this end, the Committee on the Rights of the Child should monitor the rights of the child in sport and ensure that States’ ombudspersons incorporate sport in their work. Also, the Committee should become a de facto ‘international observatory’ for children in sport. In addition, every country should identify a designated authority with responsibility for child protection in sport - ranging from the school to the community and including elite athletes.
  
• Education, awareness-raising, and training - The study advocates for education on child protection issues among several key stakeholder groups, including athletes, policymakers, support personnel, officials and sport managers. Increased education, awareness-raising, and training for adherence to ethical guidelines and codes of conduct are needed.
  
• Promotion of ethical guidelines and codes of conduct as part of the prevention system - Education and policy needs to be informed by child athletes so that appropriate structure, systems, and policies can be developed for preventing, reporting, and responding appropriately to all forms of abuse in children’s sport.

A multi-disciplinary approach for data collection and knowledge acquisition can support evidence-based advocacy and action to eliminate violence against children in sport. Areas identified for further research include: discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) athletes; discrimination in sport based on race, ethnicity, citizenship, or religion; the prevalence, forms, and impacts of violence against children in sport; forms of physical and emotional abuse; and the experience of sport by gender. The vulnerability of child athletes to training abuses and to trafficking is in need of study, as is the situation of children with disabilities. Markers must be established for monitoring and evaluation; research partnerships and networks need to be formed. In order to strengthen coordination of efforts to identify, monitor, and educate and advocate against violence in sports, each country and sport federation needs to identify a designated authority that can link sport to wider violence prevention networks at the national and international levels. Examples of existing tools and workshops addressing violence in sport are given on page 35 (Box 4.2).

The document further details ethical guidelines and codes of conduct beginning with birth registration as a fundamental child protection strategy. Because significant cultural, social, political, and religious differences across nations make it difficult to establish rules and enforcement mechanisms to prevent all forms of violence against children in sport, the document identifies useful objectives and general characteristics for country adaptations that include:

• shared, core values that reflect a global consensus throughout the sports industry in relation to the prevention of violence against children in sport.
  
• ethical principles that enable individual stakeholders worldwide to recognise and resolve the ethical dilemmas of associated risk behaviours.
  
• standards of conduct appropriate to a country's own cultural beliefs and customs in relation to risk behaviours associated with violence against children.
  
• clear standards based on consensus principles that include explicit guidance to help members make informed decisions in ethically ambiguous situations.
  
• rules to help decision-making on specific required and proscribed behaviours.
  

The report recommends: that good practice in sport for development initiatives reflect and embed children’s right to play safely; that personnel involved in sport become fully trained to recognise, prevent, and deal with violence against children and able to make referrals to child protection agencies where appropriate; that the CRC be used as a normative framework where country differences arise; that the Committee on the Rights of the Child monitor the rights of the child in sport and ensure that States’ ombudspersons incorporate sport in their work; and that people engaged in violence prevention and those in sport work together to transform the sport community into an unequivocally safe space for children.