Establish a specific agency to prevent and deal with sexist and sexual violence in sport, inject more democracy into the federations, increase the role of the Olympic committee in matters of ethics… Former Minister of Sports Marie-George Buffet submitted more than thirty proposals to the government on Thursday.
Responsible for a report on ethics and democratic life with former athletics champion Stéphane Diagana, the former minister (1997-2002) would like “a framework law” on sport, preceded by a “consultation” local stakeholders and elected officials in early 2024 in order to adopt some of these measures. A certain number of them “require the commitment of additional financial levers”, they also specify in this report published Thursday.
On the aspect of sexist and sexual violence, which has shaken the world of sport since the revelations in 2020 of the champion Sarah Abitbol raped by her trainer, the report recommends the establishment of a “specific agency”, in the form of “ independent administrative authority. This would make it possible to “continue and extend the action” of the “Signal sport” ministerial unit set up by former minister Roxana Maracineanu (2020-2022) in the wake of the Abitbol affair and to “ensure the treatment centralized and unified at the administrative and disciplinary levels” of this violence.
The role of sports federations, which sometimes did nothing and did not protect victims, is very questionable, as was recently shown by the hearings of certain presidents of federations before a commission of inquiry at the ‘Assembly. In front of these same deputies, Marie-George Buffet (PCF) described the sports movement as “extremely weakened”, particularly because of its “inter-personal nature”.
In order to protect athletes, the report also recommends “a mechanism for protective suspension in the event of a criminal conviction of a federation leader following an examination by the federal ethics committee”. To strengthen democracy within the federations, the report recommends that clubs be able to participate in the “elections” and “general assemblies” of the federation as well as a method of “proportional voting” for the election of executive committees.
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The report also recommends “strict parity in all governing bodies” of the sports movement, including the French Olympic Committee (CNOSF), as well as “provisions relating to the obligation to publish accounts and procedures for awarding contracts”.
In order to strengthen “the independence of federal ethics committees”, the authors want in particular “strict rules of incompatibility” and want these committees to be able to take charge of their own affairs. “Many still lack independence and internal skills today,” the report notes. And it provides that the CNOSF can replace the federal ethics committee “in the event of a deficiency”.
