Sports Reform Forum launched to tackle misconduct in sporting circles
- 5 years ago
To get to the root causes of sexual abuse and human rights violations in sports,.... the Sports Reform Forum launched on Tuesday.
Won Jung-hwan has the details.
Sexual violence in the sports community has been a major issue in South Korea after athletes,… including Olympic gold-winning skater Shim Suk-hee spoke out about sexual assaults.
And to try to address the issue, the National Assembly has created the Sports Reform Forum.
Some 50 political figures, former athletes and experts held a launch ceremony for the forum on Tuesday morning. The forum will meet once a month to work out measures to improve human rights in sports.
"As Korean society has long been placing scores and medal counts as the central values in sports, the issue of human rights violations and sexual abuse has finally surfaced among athletes. We have now come at a time where we cannot be silent when facing those issues."
At the forum, the speakers described how the apprenticeship-like training system that the nation's top young athletes have to endure creates an environment where athletes are vulnerable to abuse.
Meanwhile, Korea's human rights watchdog began its largest-ever investigation into sexual abuse in sports earlier this year. It aims to address the "systematic, sustained" abuse in sports, which had been hushed up for generations by victims afraid of being banished from their sports.
These efforts aim to bring much-needed reform to the sports environment, and stamp-out abuse of athletes once-and-for-all.
Won Jung-hwan, Arirang News.
Won Jung-hwan has the details.
Sexual violence in the sports community has been a major issue in South Korea after athletes,… including Olympic gold-winning skater Shim Suk-hee spoke out about sexual assaults.
And to try to address the issue, the National Assembly has created the Sports Reform Forum.
Some 50 political figures, former athletes and experts held a launch ceremony for the forum on Tuesday morning. The forum will meet once a month to work out measures to improve human rights in sports.
"As Korean society has long been placing scores and medal counts as the central values in sports, the issue of human rights violations and sexual abuse has finally surfaced among athletes. We have now come at a time where we cannot be silent when facing those issues."
At the forum, the speakers described how the apprenticeship-like training system that the nation's top young athletes have to endure creates an environment where athletes are vulnerable to abuse.
Meanwhile, Korea's human rights watchdog began its largest-ever investigation into sexual abuse in sports earlier this year. It aims to address the "systematic, sustained" abuse in sports, which had been hushed up for generations by victims afraid of being banished from their sports.
These efforts aim to bring much-needed reform to the sports environment, and stamp-out abuse of athletes once-and-for-all.
Won Jung-hwan, Arirang News.