In February 2012, the Flemish ministers responsible for Sport, Youth, Education and Welfare signed a declaration of commitment on protecting children’s physical and sexual integrity. Since then the Flemish sport sector took action. ICES (International Centre Ethics in Sport) participated in the broader working group to create the framework. Later ICES took initiative to develop the booklet for sports clubs and the flag system.
ICES was one of the partners in a working group that created a framework on sexual and physical integrity. This framework consists of several instruments at different policy levels (quality, prevention and reaction). This tool focuses on professional sports organisations (sports federations, local sports services...). Because of the typical voluntary nature of a sport context, ICES created a compact booklet with the main actions of the framework translated to easily accessible steps for (smaller) sports clubs.
The flag system is a didactical tool created to assist sport stakeholders in the assessment of sexual behaviour involving children. A general version of this tool has been developed a few years ago (Frans & Franck, 2010) and has recently been adapted to the specific context of sport by ICES and other partners (2013).
The flag system is based on six assessment criteria: consent, equality, free will, age appropriateness, context appropriateness and self-respect to assess a situation. Other than judging right or wrong, it gives a score for the six criteria and a global score (coloured flag from green, over yellow and red, to black) to assess situations in which children’s sexual integrity might be violated. Each flag colour and the corresponding degree of seriousness requires an appropriate reaction towards the victim, the perpetrator and potential bystanders.
This tool presents 30 sport specific situations in which sexual behaviour between peer athletes or between athletes and adult sport leaders are depicted, assessed and commented. Its aim is raising awareness on sexual harassment and abuse, triggering stakeholders to reflect on young athletes’ sexual integrity and empowering athletes to speak up about their experiences with unwanted behaviour.
The full booklet is available (in Dutch) at:
http://www.bvlo.be/public/uploads/files/lo/nieuws/RaamwerkSeksualiteitEnBeleidPrintable_Sportorganisatie.pdf