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I WANT TO CLOSE THE CERTIFICATE HOLE: Culture Minister Abid Raja (left) contacted the Minister of Justice on Tuesday. In the new year, the two enter into a dialogue with the NIF and sports president Berit Kjøll (right). Photo: Frode Hansen
Culture Minister Abid Raja (V) and Justice Minister Monica Mæland (H) request a meeting with the Norwegian Sports Confederation to discuss the weaknesses of the current police certificate system.
This happens after VG has revealed weaknesses in the current scheme:
First, the story of a tennis coach in Denmark showed how convicted criminals can travel to other countries without the police certificate there indicating anything about what the person in question has been convicted in Norway.
This weekend, it was revealed how at least eight people worked with minors in Norwegian sports after a verdict or charge of sexual abuse, in violation of regulations.
– Thanks to these cases, we have been able to document horrible incidents that are totally unacceptable and should not happen. We have also been informed of challenges that we might have thought about, but we may not know the scope, Culture Minister Abid Raja tells VG.
He was in dialogue with the Minister of Justice, Monica Mæland, on Tuesday morning, and now announces that they want a meeting with the Norwegian Sports Confederation in the new year.
The goal is to close the gaps in the current system.
In the ruling Høyre party, Tage Pettersen and Ingunn Foss are shocked by the VG revelations.
– For sports and volunteering, it is important that police certificates provide real security for all children and young people. Then we must move away from “snapshots” and work to ensure that certificates can be digitized and easier to find, of course, while safeguarding privacy, says Pettersen.
He is a sports policy spokesman for the party, but also president of the Norwegian Ice Hockey Association.
Ingunn Foss also believes that the sports association should be invited to a meeting in the new year.
– I doubt that the police certificate system alone can solve the problem. It is a scheme that many experience as a kind of guarantee that you are dealing with decent people, but it only gives a picture of the current situation. Many things can happen in the days and weeks after receiving such a certificate. Also, the police require a lot of resources to issue these certificates, he says.
KNOWN: Tage Pettersen (pictured) and Ingunn Foss in the Conservative Party. Photo: Berit Roald / NTB scanpix
The Norwegian Sports Confederation has long fought to improve the scheme, but so far it has not been approved by the authorities.
Sports President Berit Kjøll said on Tuesday that he is happy to learn that the minister is taking the initiative for a meeting, in which the Minister of Justice will also participate:
– We want a digital police certificate scheme, where all those who according to the sports registry are responsible for children or people with developmental disabilities are automatically verified. Finally, we need Norway to take the initiative of international schemes to facilitate obtaining a police certificate for coaches from other countries, he says.
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NIF did not receive as much funding for the digitization of its systems as they wanted when the annual gaming equipment allocation was recently released.
Abid Raja asks the sport now to prioritize:
– When the community provides 750 million crowns for sport, the sport must see that it is a significant sum. If they think that combating the sexual abuse of children is the number one problem, then I think they should spend a part of the sum on this, the minister tells VG.
Given this, Berit Kjøll responds:
– This (work against sexual abuse, editor’s note) has been a priority area for the entire sports organization for several years. Additionally, NIF management has doubled our capacity on this issue in 2020. However, this challenge does not solve the sport alone. Here we also need the help of the authorities.
