On 10 December, the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport (MESCS) of Georgia organised a conference to launch its National Start to Talk Campaign against child sexual abuse and harassment in sport.
Start to Talk is a Council of Europe call for action to public authorities, the sport movement and other stakeholders to take the necessary prevention and protection measures to stop child sexual abuse. The launching of a national campaign is one of the actions proposed by EPAS within the Start to Talk initiative.
The conference was moderated by Vasil Liparteliani, Head of the Physical Education and Sports Development Division, (MESCS) and included the following panellists:
- Shalva Gogoladze, Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia
- Elda Moreno, Head of the Children’s Rights and Sports Values Department of the Council of Europe
- Ekaterine Skhiladze, Deputy Public Defender of Georgia
- Sopio Kiladze, Head of Human Rights and Civil Integration Committee of the Parliament of Georgia
- Lela Akiashvili, Advisor to the Prime Minister of Georgia on Human Rights and Gender Equality
- Sopiko Burduli, Senior Specialist at Sport Development Department at MESCS
- Anne Tiivas, Expert, Chair at Safe Sport International
- Karen Leach, Expert, former athlete
- Iza Kasrelishvili, Representative of the Human Rights Protection and Investigation Quality Monitoring Department, Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia
During the conference, representatives from MESCS presented its action plan to fight child sexual abuse in sport, which will focus on protecting victims, awareness raising and education training. The panellists insisted on the importance of breaking the silence to tackle this global problem. The Partnership for Human Rights, the Public Health Foundation of Georgia and the National Olympic Committee of Georgia actively participated in the final discussion.
About Start to Talk (EPAS webpage)
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