Sixty-second General Assembly

Plenary

115^th Meeting (AM)

welcoming Secretary-General’s decision to create trust fund for sport,

General Assembly adopts related text on promoting development, peace

Noting the value of sport as a constructive and effective tool for building an international environment of peace, tolerance, dialogue and respect, the General Assembly this morning welcomed United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki‑moon’s recent decision to establish a United Nations-backed Trust Fund for Sport for Development and Peace.

Unanimously adopting a new resolution on sport as a means to promote education, health, development and peace (document A/62/L.46), the Assembly also called on the Secretary-General to report during its upcoming sixty-third session on national, regional and international progress to encourage policies and best practices on sport for development and peace.

The resolution, introduced by the representative of Chile on behalf of Monaco, the Russian Federation and Switzerland, also welcomed the Secretary-General’s recent decision to renew the mandate of his Special Adviser on Sport for Peace and Development.  The text also took note of the Secretary-General’s recent progress report (document A/62/325), which summarizes the steps taken worldwide during the first year of a three-year road map to implement sport for development and peace programmes.

Chile’s representative welcomed the appointment of Wilfred Lemke as Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace, and the particular consideration that the Secretary-General had assigned to the effective functioning of the Office on Sport through the establishment of the Special Voluntary Fund.  Chile urged the United Nations, the private sector, civil society and other concerned stakeholders to do more to generate initiatives and understanding for the design of new policies and the predictable mobilization of resources for sport.

Noting that the resolution was widely co-sponsored by Member States, he emphasized the timeliness of its adoption, with the XXIX Olympic Games scheduled to take place in Beijing in less than a month’s time.  The action represented one of many solid contributions to the promotion of sport and physical education at the international level.

Before the adoption, the representatives of Sierra Leone, Cuba, Turkey, Swaziland, Viet Nam and Trinidad and Tobago each spoke briefly in support of the resolution, as did the representative of Bolivia, who also emphasized the need to prevent geographic or regional issues from becoming an obstacle to sport.

Also this morning, the Assembly took up a letter from the Permanent Mission of Hungary on the country’s decision to relinquish its seat on the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in favour of Serbia, as of 31 December 2008, according to the rotation agreement within the Group of Eastern European States.  Given that there was only one vacancy among the European States and only one candidate, the Assembly elected Serbia, without a vote, as a member of the Governing Council for a term beginning on 1 January 2009 and expiring on 31 December 2011.

The General Assembly will meet again at a time and date to be announced.

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For information media • not an official record