Acknowledgement Forums
Victims of serious violations of human rights have the right to tell the truth about the abuses they have suffered and they have the right to be listened to.
In order to facilitate such a process of acknowledgement, various societies and organizations have searched for ways of providing a setting in which victims can recount their stories to a specific commission or a group of stakeholders who are in the position to acknowledge the violations and start a process of investigation and reconciliation.
Certainly, the Ryan Commission in Ireland is one of the best known and longstanding institutions in this field. Recently, further initiatives have developed in this field, as for example in the UK, The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, or in Germany, the Independent Commission for Acknowledging Child Sexual Abuse (Unabhängige Kommission zur Aufarbeitung sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs).
Although the project VOICE cannot accomplish an encompassing process of investigating and acknowledging sexual violence in European sport, it follows the principles of the above mentioned forerunners and tries to take first steps into this direction in the field of sport with the National VOICE Forums.