Ruginienė urges zero tolerance after sexual violence scandals

Social Security and Labour Minister Inga Ruginienė has called for a stronger public response to recent sexual violence scandals, LRT reports.

“We have seen thousands of people take to the streets, but should not such cases really prompt a more active civic position and a clearer red line, saying that we have zero tolerance for people who dare to act against human dignity and safety and humiliate another person?” Ruginienė told Žinių radijas.

She said society must defend victims of sexual violence.

Ruginienė was speaking about the situation in women’s basketball after a FIBA investigation into Rimantas Grigas, the head coach of Lithuania’s women’s national team. Grigas was barred from all basketball-related activities until October 2030.

A commission that previously investigated the case for the Lithuanian Basketball Federation, now the association Lietuvos krepšinis, said it had found no signs of sexual harassment in testimonies submitted by the coach’s former players. However, Grigas was issued a warning over possible breaches in his communication with players and the organisation of his coaching work.

“The most painful thing is that here, within the country, we were unable to see and hear the women’s accounts. I am very sorry that the women’s accounts of the coach’s inappropriate behaviour were, as my intuition tells me, pushed aside,” Ruginienė said.

She added that many similar stories were heard in the world of sport and criticised both the limited response from responsible institutions and society’s tolerance of such cases.

“I do not know whether our past is so painful that this has almost become the norm: sexual harassment at work, sexual harassment during training,” she said.