It's time to call a foul against violence towards women in sport

While manifestations of violence against women and girls vary across social, economic, cultural and historical contexts, it is clear that violence against women and girls in sport remains a devastating reality in all parts of the world. Existing research, data and testimonials from women and girls worldwide provides chilling evidence. It is a pervasive violation of human rights and a major impediment to achieving gender equality and development in the sector and in the country at large.

Such violence is unacceptable, whether perpetrated by coaches, peer athletes and sports associations, or by spectators in the public or private sphere during sports activities or off the sports arena.

International, regional and national legal and policy frameworks have been established, covering many different forms of violence in public, as well as private, settings. However, the little progress in the development of such legal norms, standards and policies specifically for the sports sector has not been accompanied by comparable progress in their implementation. It remains insufficient and in most case
ignored and underutilized.

Sports institutions have an obligation to protect women and girls from violence, to hold perpetrators accountable and to provide justice and remedies to victims. The failure to meet these obligations is unacceptable. When the sports sector fails to hold the perpetrators of violence accountable and society explicitly or tacitly condones such violence, such impunity not only encourages further abuses but also gives the message that male violence against women is acceptable and normal. The result is the denial of justice to the individual victims/survivors, as well as reinforcement of the prevailing gender inequality in the
sector.

Eliminating violence against women remains one of the most serious and urgent challenges of our time. Everyone has a responsibility to act when confronted with violence. Each one of us has a duty to support and sustain a sporting environment where violence against women and girls is not tolerated; where friends, family members, neighbours, men and women intervene and prevent perpetrators from going unpunished.

In view of the quest to meet the Millennium Development Goal on gender equity and empowerment, every effort should be made within the sector to deal with violence at all levels. Dialogue should be promoted around this issue to illustrate various dimensions of the problem from the perspectives of athletes, coaches, administrators and the media.