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UN Member States Confirm Sport's Development and Peace Potential
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Today in New York, the UN General Assembly passed its latest resolution on sport, marking its renewed support to use sport as a vehicle for positive social change.

The Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace, Wilfried Lemke, attended the debate before he continues his route to Haiti, where he will explore the potential of sport and physical activity in the recovery process and lend his support to the local and international actors in that field.

New resolution adopted at UN General Assembly
This year’s resolution, entitled “Sport as a means to promote education, health, development and peace,” encourages the use of sport as a vehicle to foster development and strengthen education, prevent disease, empower girls and women, foster the inclusion and well-being of persons with disabilities, and facilitate conflict prevention and peace-building.

The Special Adviser to the Secretary-General, Mr. Wilfried Lemke, who attended the debate on the Secretary-General’s report on Sport and Development for Peace and subsequent passing of the resolution commented: "It is crucial that these resolutions are adopted by the General Assembly. The continuous commitment by the world’s nations to promote sport as an efficient policy tool and its capability to be used as a catalyst for development and peace is key to the success of initiatives at grassroots level.”

The resolution was introduced by Monaco and Tunisia, both co-chairs of the Group of Friends of Sport for Development and Peace, a forum of Ambassadors to the UN in New York that was instrumental in facilitating support and co-sponsorship of the text. During the session, the representatives of the following Member States addressed the Assembly (in order of appearance): Tunisia, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Oman, United States, Australia, Papua New Guinea, India, South Africa, Monaco, and Bolivia. Representatives of Palestine and of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) also expressed their support to the text.

The resolution continues the support given by the UN Member States to sport’s role in the achievement of development and peace objectives throughout the world, in particular with regard to the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), as it was recently highlighted at a high-level roundtable in New York and in the outcome document of the Millennium Summit which was held last month in New York (whereby Heads of State and Government “recognize that sport, as a tool for education, development and peace, can promote cooperation, solidarity, tolerance, understanding, social inclusion and health at the local, national and international levels.”)

The increasing importance of sport in the UN has been evidenced by its passing of similar resolutions since 2003. The Secretary-General has continuously reported to the General Assembly on the implementation of these resolutions and on progress at the national, regional and international levels. This year was no exception (see his latest report here).

Sport as a recovery tool in Haiti
Tomorrow, the Special Adviser will travel from the UN Headquarters in New York to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where he will meet with the UN mission (MINUSTAH), the UN country team, and sports organizations, and visit several sport for development programmes, such as UNICEF’s sport for psycho-social relief programmes for internally displaced persons (IDPs), and activities of the NGO VivaRio which aim to reduce violence through sport.

Mr. Lemke will see first hand the relief efforts that are undertaken in Haiti after the devastating earthquake that hit the country and support the efforts in using sport programmes in the post-disaster period. He hopes to identify good practices and will explore with various partners on the ground how the role of sport in Haiti can be strengthened and how sport can be used for helping the communities rebuild themselves.

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