Combating Violence Against Women

Part of 4. Questions to the Leader of the House and Chief Whip – in the Senedd at 4:37 pm on 11 December 2018.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 4:37, 11 December 2018

I absolutely congratulate many of the sporting clubs across Wales, and especially the male versions of the sporting clubs who've been very active in the White Ribbon campaign. Many of the clubs around—the Ospreys in particular, for example, and their community programme and Swansea Whites and a number of others across—. It's invidious to name them, actually, because there are large numbers of them who take part in it.

We did rerun the This Is Me and Don't Be a Bystander campaigns during the 16 days of the autumn internationals and supported, as you know, the White Ribbon campaign; you were a very prominent supporter yourself. We are looking to rerun them in the spring during the internationals again. The idea here is to get the level of awareness that we got for Kick It Out with sporting events, so that the men who are the fans understand that this is not an acceptable response to disappointment, or actually, oddly enough, exhilaration in sport, because the spike happens whether you win or lose, rather distressingly. But to emphasise the importance of sport. So, we are very aware of it; we are running the campaigns again, we've funded them to do so, and I would absolutely pay tribute to the sporting clubs who've joined in, because it's very important that young men have the right role models to know that that's not what being masculine is all about.