On October 28 of this year in Riga, the National Library of Latvia we will host an international conference “Playing by the rules: risks of sexual exploitation of children in sports and their prevention in local governments”.
The purpose of the conference is to focus on the topic – child safety and protection from sexual abuse in the sports environment. Is this a problem? Who should take responsibility for preventing various risks? And what specifically can the state, municipalities, sports organizations and sports schools do? Let’s find the answers together.
The target audience of the conference are heads of sports schools and sports federations, representatives of local governments who work in the field of sports and education, as well as cooperation groups and decision-makers from state institutions.
Participation in the conference is free, and attendees will receive a certificate of participation after the event.
Conference program
| 9.30-10.00 | Registration |
| 10.00-10.30 | Opening
|
| 10.30-11.45 | My story. How can we protect children better? (Paul Stewart, former English Premier League footballer) |
| 11.45-12.00 | The role of the media in understanding sensitive topics (Raimonds Rudzāts, journalist) |
| 12.00-13.00 | Break |
| 13.00-13.10 | Body, movement, presence (Agate Bankava, choreographer) |
| 13.10-13.30 | What do we need to know about the prevention of child sexual abuse? (Laila Balode, Centrs Dardedze board member) |
| 13.30-14.15 | Being safe in sports: basic principles of child protection at the community level (Rocco Briganti, executive director of the NGO “Specchio Magico”, Italy) |
| 14.15-14.30 | Children’s safety in the sports integrity ecosystem (Laima Kirtovska, DAiSI PhD student in sports ethics and integrity, Swansea University) |
| 14.30-15.00 | Break |
| 15.00-15.20 | Safe sports for children in every municipality (Inga Eisengrauda, Director of the Methodical Management and Analytics Department of the Child Protection Center) |
| 15.20-15.45 | Where to start: the example of Smiltene municipality (Astrīda Harju, chairwoman of the Smiltene county municipal council, Esmeralda Aizupiete, Youth worker) |
| 15.45-15.55 | Implementation of Safeguarding ideas in the Latvian sports environment (Ivars Pauska, Latvian Olympic Committee, lawyer) |
| 15.55-16.20 | Where to start: examples of sports schools in Latvia (Žanete Narkēviča, Art gymnastics teacher of the Riga Gymnastics School) |
| 16.20-16.30 | What next? (Anda Avena, Centrs Dardedze board member) |
Conference moderator: Valdis Melderis
Organizers and supporters
- The conference is organized by “Centrs Dardedze” in cooperation with the Latvian Children’s Welfare Network.
- Organized within the project “Representation of children’s interests in the field of social security” and its progress is financed by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.
- Financed also from the project “Prevention of sexual exploitation of children – promotion of a safe environment” of the “NGO Fund” program financed by the Latvian state budget.
- Supported by the British Embassy, ”Orkla” and “Venden”.