Safe sport through the looking glass

Human rights is a universal moral obligation that encompasses every human that dwells upon this earth and, it reaches and touches the very heart of governance in any part of the globe. Unhindered living is a right of every citizen and ensuring that right is preserved, is the moral obligation of every governing body. 

Unconstrained right of living could be divided in minute portions and the segment we call ‘right to play’, or in a more sophisticated manner of explaining it as “Safe Sports”, is another important segment the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka (NOCSL) takes seriously. 

Though it is largely thought of as a malady that has crept into sport through the generations, it is only now that we have awakened to open our eyes and speak loudly against discriminations that occurs on this part of the track.

It seems under the present circumstances, especially in a Lankan context, the majority of the population knows or are aware of human rights, but sadly this is not filtered through or thought of encompassing the concept of safe sport. 

Such lack of ignorance or redress mechanism has been a significant contributory factor in promising athletes deserting the sport and a natural lifeline of sustenance, possible stardom, and national pride. Not surprisingly, most of the cases involve female athletes. 

Speaking of Safe Sport and NOCSL’s part in the safe play in this exchange, former Rugby and now a legal luminary Jivan Goonetilleke possesses an in-depth knowledge of the subject. With that in mind, we inquired about his views on the subject. 

Jivan explained: “Generally it all comes within the framework of trying to improve our sports in Sri Lanka. There are two aspects to it. One is that from an international perspective there was a significant shift in emphasis on fair treatment, gender equality and anti-harassment. Universally, there was more emphasis on male participation in international events and tournaments. Women participation in sports was inherently getting step-motherly treatment.  

If you look at international sport on the whole, women’s teams were treated as inferior, but now they call it the Men’s Cricket World Cup and the Women’s Cricket World Cup and parity is given.

“In fact, there is a large-scale argument where payment for athletes should be on an equal footing. It is said it should be on the same scale, but it is not the case still; as in certain countries, there is still argument as to why women’s sports should be scaled differently.”

In recent times National Olympic Associations incorporated safety mechanisms to address such growing concerns on gender equality, discrimination, and abuse.  

In Sri Lanka too there was a pressing need to show that it is in line with the main Olympic charter. It must now ensure that it recognises women on the same scale. The same parity that given to male teams must be given. 

Jivan emphasised: “That is one aspect of it. The other aspect of it is – obviously the common goal is to develop our sports. Development of sport sometimes is misconstrued. It is understood that you have to make investment into sport for improvement of stadiums, gyms, facilities etc., but at the same time we have neglected the other side of it. Why are we neglecting certain areas and what deters people from continuing sports, especially from a female athlete perspective? 

“There were a lot of issues when it came to equal opportunity; how they were treated and how their grievances were met. Because Sri Lanka is small, Colombo is even smaller. But, if you look at most of our athletes, there is tremendous potential from outstation and other places that are not in the public eye. 

“Of course, there are people like Susanthika Jayasinghe who came to Olympic level but, there are so many athletes with potential who have fallen by the wayside for whatever reasons. One of the areas clearly identified is abuse. Basically, there was little or no regulation or grievance handling process, so they were deterred from continuing in sports. They did not have a proper mechanism to address that grievance.”

“In fact, no one even bothered about it. Perhaps they did not bother to look at it or preferred ignoring it,” Jivan pointed out – where would have their redress?

He explained: “Even the criminalising of sexual harassment came only in 1995. Even if you take a workplace, if you look at industrial relations, it is not effectively administered. We are lagging behind time. Even with this mechanism, social and cultural mindsets deter victims from seeking recourse to the remedies available under law and even where resorted to they are plagued by delays and social stigmas.

“We realised to meet both these requirements; we need to really have a robust system in place – a system which instils confidence in athletes. It is not only confined to female athletes; it is open to male athletes as well. They need to now believe that there is a forum and a mechanism here that is designed to actually help athletes – it instils confidence in the entire system. 

“That is why we in the NOCSL Safe Sports Committee developed this. It is adopted in other countries as well – where you have to protect the individual. You have to give the athlete assurance that there is not going to be a backlash and the athlete can safely make a complaint. We have made it easier to make a complaint; not everybody has a computer, or it is not everybody that could get into a bus and travel to Colombo, or it is not everybody who could speak English. These are all drawbacks which deter people from taking action. 

“They suffer in silence, or they drop out from the sport entirely. This was designed after researching policy instruments in other jurisdictions, particularly the Indian Ministry of Women and Child Development Handbook on Sexual Harassment, Norwegian Sexual Harassment in Sports Guidelines and Czech Republic Sexual Harassment Charter, just to name a few.  

“What we have here is a mechanism that is apart from the law, where the NOCSL itself has a system and a place where you can address an athlete’s grievance. Looking at the cultural issue and the practicalities of the situation, there is a two-tier system.  

“We have a Complaints Committee and then you have a Hearing Committee. The Complaints Committee is where you lodge a complaint; it can be an email, or you can give it in writing and that is processed very confidentially. Your identity is covered and the Complaints Committee – it is a very flexible body that will do the fact finding. 

“The committees contain some respectable and erudite persons in society such as lawyers, psychologists, Women’s Rights activists, etc. They will interview witnesses and accused parties and get statements. Afterwards, at that point, if necessary, they can come up with a solution. However, if it’s a grievous issue or warrants further inquiry, then that entire docket with whatever information is gathered is referred to the Hearing Committee. 

“The Hearing Committee is a more legalistic and process driven body empowered to make determinations and recommendations and a final report and submit it to the NOCSL where sanctions and determinations can even be rooted back to the accused party’s sport’s national association.

“Initially we called it the Prevention of Sexual Harassment and Abuse Policy. Its scope and practical application have been expanded to cover general good governance where in our maiden case, recommendations were made to the NOCSL to direct all national sports associations to adopt written selection criteria in selection of national teams/participants and/or written justification for selections to ensure fairness, equality, and transparency of process. 

“It is now up to the NOCSL and Sports Ministry to ensure that there is a wide educational and publicity drive to enlighten all sportsmen and sportswomen from even school level of the existence of such safeguard aimed at protecting their growth and development in the sport.”