The Council of Europe’s Pool of International Experts on Safe Sport held its third annual meeting on 3 December 2024 in hybrid format (Strasbourg, France, and online).
In the framework of the meeting, a seminar on trauma-informed child safeguarding practices in sport was organised in collaboration with the Luxembourg Presidency of the Committee of Ministers. The seminar aimed to highlight the need for a trauma-informed approach in policymaking, training of relevant stakeholders, the engagement of persons with lived experience of abuse, and more. It brought together professionals from different sectors to better understand the pervasive nature of trauma (that has occurred in, through and around sport) in order to promote healing and recovery environments rather than practices that may inadvertently re-traumatise. The Seminar was opened by Georges Mischo, Minister of Sport of Luxembourg, Delphine Costantini, Chargée de Mission at the Directorate of National Education, Youth and Sport of Monaco and Hanne Juncher, Director of Security, Integrity and Rule of Law at the Council of Europe. The Pool presented its deliverables for 2024, which include a Glossary on Safe Sport and a Compendium of resources on Safe Sport.
The annual meeting of the Pool included group discussions on the preparation of guidelines on safer recruitment procedures in sport; this was the topic of a roundtable held during last year’s annual meeting, entitled “Safer recruitment in sport: human rights-compliant screening of criminal and disciplinary records”. The Pool deliverables for 2025 and beyond were also identified.
The Council of Europe’s Pool of International Experts on Safe Sport is the single entry point to a unique source of multi-disciplinary expertise covering all forms of violence and abuse against children in sport. It brings together policy-makers, researchers and academics, specialists supporting people with lived experience, child safeguarding officers, trainers/consultants and agents of change. It is a vehicle for peer-learning, capacity-building and fostering exchanges between all those who have a role to play in preventing and combating violence and abuse against children in sport. The Secretariat support to the Pool is provided by the Council of Europe’s Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS) within the “Start to Talk” project.
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