KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 6 – The Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS) received 27 complaints related to sport safety violations from 2023 to 2024, said KBS minister, Hannah Yeoh in a written Dewan Rakyat reply yesterday.
Sixteen of the cases have been resolved with the breakdown of cases as follows: sexual abuse (two cases), mental abuse (three cases), physical abuse (two cases), bullying (four cases), threats (two cases), sexual grooming (two cases) and neglect (one case).
There are currently 11 active cases including four cases of sexual abuse, two cases of mental abuse, two cases of physical abuse and three cases of neglect.
Yeoh was responding to Bangi MP, Syahredzan Johan, who wanted to know the number of complaints handled by KBS as well as their latest status with breakdown of case types (sexual harassment, psychological misconduct, physical misconduct, bullying, sexual grooming and others).
Syahredzan also wanted to know what intervention measures were available for women in sports through the Safe Sport Code as well as the Ministry’s plan to empower the code.
“Throughout 2024, KBS has implemented 48 advocacy programmes involving 6,642 participants among athletes, coaches, officials, sports administrators and so on,” said Yeoh.
“Advocacy programmes have also been implemented in schools and higher education institutions since April 2024 involving 38,096 participants among students and officials.”
She added that as a preventive measure, it is also necessary for all sports-related organisations to do a background check before hiring coaches or technical officers, especially for activities involving children.
Yeoh said appointment letters and contracts should also include a signed commitment to comply with the Safe Sport Code and other child protection policies.
