00:00Shifting gears now, one in five female athletes say they've been victims of
00:04some form of sexual violence while playing sports during their childhood.
00:08That's two times the amount of men. While in response to those sobering
00:12statistics, UNESCO is launching a call of action this week to combat sexual
00:17violence against women and girls in sports. In collaboration with UN Women,
00:21the organization has laid out 10 points of action covering areas from the legal
00:26system to the role the media plays. This in order to tackle the root causes of
00:30violence and support victims. Well for more let's speak to Gabriela Ramos who
00:34is Assistant Director General for Social and Human Sciences at UNESCO. Gabriela
00:40thank you so much for joining us on the program. Thanks for having me. So
00:44obviously sexual violence in any context whether it's towards men or women is
00:49dangerous and it's a terrible thing but clearly the statistics put out by UNESCO
00:54show that women and girls are often victim to violence. Tell us why
01:01is there such a culture of abuse in this area? Well first and foremost is just a
01:07representation of what happens everywhere because violence against
01:11women is present in every aspect of our life and that is linked to the way we
01:16have developed social codes and norms that normalize these kind of things. In
01:21the world of sports it's even worse because there's lack of transparency
01:26because there is a culture of pushing athletes to perform to the limit. There
01:32are, we cross boundaries because it's a lot about the body of the athlete, how
01:38you prepare it, how you push it. A lot of instances in which you are alone with
01:44your coach and there are no rules or protection systems that can really help
01:49us with this issue and therefore what we see is that there is the incentives
01:55there to first if it happens you do not report because you might lose your
02:02chances to be an Olympic or to go to the Games. Second you are in the hands of
02:06your coach that needs to train you and then there is lack of transparency
02:12because families leave the kids to do sports and therefore that's why UNESCO
02:18who is dealing with, we have a program on sports and we have a program that is
02:22Fit for Life, we are shedding light on these issues because it needs to be
02:26reported, it needs to be known, countries need to take action and therefore we
02:32need to have the rules to protect women and to make sure that we give voice to
02:37the victims, that we have the systems and that we protect them because this is
02:43really as you said 21% of women and girls that have reported that they have
02:48suffered sexual violence is not a great number, only 25% of sports associations
02:56have rules and laws and reporting mechanisms and therefore we really need
03:02to strengthen and that's why we're launching this call to action, of course
03:05with the Olympics. Well as you mentioned sexual violence often goes on behind
03:10closed doors, how does UNESCO propose that we tackle this culture of secrecy?
03:15Well first and foremost let's shed light and that's why we call the call to
03:20action, we have been doing a lot of research with UN women, we have engaged
03:24with the Olympic movement, we have engaged with the governments and
03:29therefore we are first looking at how do we bring the countries together, UNESCO
03:34and Director General Azulayar are very strong on the question of gender
03:39priority, but first and foremost bring the countries around the table to
03:43discuss the issues. Many times they find that I didn't know, so very important.
03:49Second, make very concrete suggestions to have the laws, to have the structures, to
03:55have the policies, get together and see how you build these mechanisms of
04:00protection, train the coaches, have reporting mechanisms, this is one of the
04:05issues that is very important because if you are aggressed, where do you go?
04:12Do you trust somebody? And I think for example in France the Olympic
04:16chapter is building these safeguarding mechanisms, we need the data, the 25%
04:24that I commented of associations that have their laws is the Council of Europe
04:29that launches survey, what happened with the rest of the world? We need to have
04:34more information, we need to give voice to the girls that have been
04:38aggressed to tell us their story. Sometimes you just hear how their broken
04:46dreams have been smashed because of these experiences, they were going to be
04:51Olympic and then they found themselves in a situation where they have no
04:55protection and therefore we really need to look at this thing in a very holistic
05:00manner. And then you need to engage of course if there are perpetrators, 75% of
05:06the girls that have been abused or abusers remain in their place, even if
05:11they are convicted. You need to have cross-checking mechanisms because then
05:16they move to one city to the other and nobody takes care. So I think it really
05:20needs to become a priority, it needs to be seen, it needs to be measured, it needs
05:25to be strengthened in terms of our capacities to deal with these issues.
05:29Because at the end it's not only the fact that it's just yet another area
05:35where women are aggressed, it's the sports that is also a fantastic tool for
05:42women empowerment. So we're losing twice if we don't tackle the issue.
05:47And one of the points put out by UNESCO, one of the calls for action is for equal
05:52promotion of athletes in the media. Female athletes only receive 5% of
05:58sports media coverage. Tell us how do you think that this would reduce sexual
06:03violence against women? Well again, in gender equality when you have women at
06:09boards, businesses are more productive. If you have an ecosystem that is male
06:16dominated, these things are not seen. If you have an ecosystem as we saw in the
06:22Football Association of Spain that reproduces these matches or these very
06:26toxic environments, bring more women. And this again is another area, the sports
06:33world, that is very very unbalanced. Because as you say 5% of the media
06:38coverage for women, only 12% of coaches are women, we have very few referees.
06:44If you think about very very high performing athletes, women have 30%
06:50chances of having a sponsor, while men have 100% the gap in terms of
06:57salaries. So it is in itself, take besides the question of violence, in
07:03itself the sport ecosystem is very unequal. And therefore if you try to
07:09bring gender equality to that system, you will have a more stable, equal and
07:16probably more friendly environment. It's not because women are perfect, of course
07:20I can say women are fantastic, but it's because you bring diversity and you
07:24bring this awareness. It's very important the awareness of having more diverse,
07:30more respectful, more transparent institutions and therefore yes we need
07:36more women and we need more equality in the sports ecosystem.
07:40Well following on from the need for more equality, clearly in sports there's a
07:45massive gender pay gap. Tell us what the role of economics plays in all of this.
07:51Sometimes we hide ourselves in how the ecosystem of sports works, because you
07:58hear I cannot pay the same to sports clubs of women because they don't
08:05produce the same in terms of revenues for media coverage. Well it's not true. It
08:10has proven wrong with the football players in the US. You need to make
08:15equality mandatory and therefore you start projecting the competitions of
08:20women and they will increase revenues. But in any case it's about the rules. It's
08:25not because for social norms people prefer to see boys that you are going to
08:31put the accent and forget about the equal rights of women in presenting
08:36their sports. So I feel it's also the question of incentives, but incentives
08:40changes when you introduce quotas, when you introduce affirmative action, when
08:45you give the due space to the girls and I feel it's a must to
08:50make sure that people are aware about these differences and people enjoy of
08:55course seeing women performing. And that's what we are pushing at UNESCO
09:00with our Fit for Life initiative and trying to bring countries together to
09:05recognize a problem, shed light to the problem and take action. And we hope that
09:11it does make a difference. Gabriella Ramos who is an assistant director
09:14general for social and human sciences at UNESCO. Thank you so much for joining
09:18us here on France 24. Thanks for shedding light on this issue and I hope that we
09:22will make progress.
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