How can UNESCO’s revised Charter on physical education and sport become a game-changer?

In a session dedicated to the revised UNESCO International Charter of Physical Education and Sport, ISCA President Mogens Kirkeby called for ‘game changing’ initiatives when he spoke at the international Play the Game 2015 conference.

How can a document be a change-maker in practice as well as on paper? This was the central question – not only from the speakers and delegates, but from UNESCO’s executive officer for sport, Phillip Müller-Wirth, himself – when the biennial Play the Game took a look at how to make UNESCO’s newly revised Charter of Physical Education and Sport more than words.

UNESCO first adopted the Charter 37 years ago, and a decision was made to revise it after recommendations presented at the 5th International Conference of Ministers and Senior Officials Responsible for Physical Education and Sport (MINEPS V) in Berlin in 2013, where ISCA was present as a stakeholder.

Müller-Wirth described UNESCO as the “custodians of sport policy development” who introduced the Charter, and several persons or institutions represented in the debate, including ISCA, the International Council of Sport Science and Physical Education (ICSSPE), the international director of Play the Game, Jens Sejer Andersen, have played an active part in revising it.

Now, after a significant overhaul, it is time for all stakeholders to “move away from policy intent” and find out “what should be done and how to do it”, he said:

“This is our common Charter and it will only be as useful as we make it.”