Sport Bridges Cultures, Empowers People, Promotes Peace, Sustainable Development, General Assembly Speakers Declare, Adopting Resolution by Consensus
Sport serves as the ultimate unifier, bridging diverse cultures and generations, promoting sustainable development and offering young people a constructive alternative to crime and delinquency, Member States told the General Assembly today.
Adopting a resolution titled “Sport as an enabler of sustainable development” (document A/79/L.10), the Assembly encouraged Member States to integrate sport into national strategies for sustainable development. Taking note of the contributions that sport makes to health, it invited Member States and international sport organizations to continue to assist developing countries, and particularly least developed ones, in their capacity-building efforts in sport and physical education.
By other terms of the annual text, the Assembly called on Member States to enhance their efforts to prevent and fight against corruption and organized crime in sport and facilitate the exchange of expertise and the dissemination of information within sports organizations and the sports community.
It also called upon Member States and the sport sector to enhance efforts to prevent and fight trafficking in persons, in particular of children and women, as well as forced labour, sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment and all forms of violence in sports.
The representative of Qatar, introducing “L.10”, credited sport as an outlet to achieve peace and intergenerational communication. Sport empowers women and young people, he stressed, pledging his delegation’s efforts to continue “to place the emphasis on sport as a forum for peace, cooperation, and sustainable development”.
Singapore’s representative highlighted the crucial role of sport in crime prevention. For Singapore, sport is a part of a collaborative and coordinated approach to addressing youth delinquency. She touched on several “sport-based early intervention” programmes that keep youth meaningfully occupied, particularly during school holiday periods. More so, sport activities teach young people discipline, resilience and responsibility, she said.
“Ethiopia believes that the absence of sports infrastructure can impose serious challenges on society — especially the youth, who spend their precious time in unnecessary places doing unproductive things,” said that country’s representative. Addressing these infrastructure gaps in a timely fashion, then, is imperative, he stressed.
Providing an example of doing so, Guyana’s representative reported that previously underserved communities in his country have seen increased access to multi-purpose facilities, dedicated nursery programmes and elite academies. “Law enforcement agencies also use sports as an entry point to interact with young people so that they are not lured to a life of crime,” he added.
Similarly, the representative of the United Arab Emirates noted the use of sport as a tool to prevent crime, emphasizing that enabling youth participation in sports can help address the root causes of conflict and fight against extremism. Further, she said that her country is using sport to enable sustainability through the adoption of innovative techniques such as the use of photovoltaic solar panels, light-emitting-diode bulbs and natural resources in stadiums.
Other speakers warned against the politicization of sport, with the representative of Belarus recalling how in 2022 the International Paralympic Committee banned Belarusian athletes with disabilities from participating in the Winter Olympics in Beijing. “They did this for political reasons,” he stressed, also adding: “These decisions are illegal, unjustified and politically motivated.”
The representative of the Russian Federation condemned efforts by international sporting officials to “cancel the Russian Federation” by threats and blackmail, putting athletes under surveillance and inciting them to change their sporting nationality. How can sport be cleansed from “vulgar politicization” that will stand “its humiliating discrimination”, including on the basis of its and athletes’ nationality, she asked. With different entities now trying to turn sports into an arena of geopolitical gains, imposing “the neoliberal agenda”, her country seeks to develop the mastery of athletes in areas where sports are not political, but “fair and built with the spirit of friendship and unity”, she said.
“Sport is a vehicle of unity,” said the representative of Morocco, adding that the activity is a major enabler of young persons’ development, along with the development of women and persons with disabilities. “It's a platform for expressing yourself, for fulfilling your goals,” she declared, adding: “We believe that sport is a driver of positive change and a way of combating marginalization.”
Underscoring the integral “powerful role” of sports in his nation’s healing and reconciliation process after the 1994 Genocide, Rwanda’s representative highlighted efforts of her country in its development including through physical infrastructure, talent and tourism events as well as other policy actions. The activity is “a vehicle for promoting gender equality and youth empowerment, central to Rwanda’s broader social development agenda”, she said and urged that it be harnessed for environmental sustainability.
Ghana’s speaker said because “the growing youthful population of the world” makes up 25 per cent of the world’s peoples and are the “dominant actors in sport”, attention must continue concerning work towards sustaining peace and achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. “Through sports we can help the youth to better appreciate the diversity of skills of individuals, the importance of teamwork in addressing gaps in skills, and the reality that some days we lose and other days we would win,” he said, stressing that these values will instil in both the youth and all of society, tolerance, respect and mutual understanding.
Having hosted the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris this summer in “a time of tension and war, we need these unifying moments more than ever”, said France’s delegate. With 32 sporting events and 10,500 athletes achieving gender parity for the first time, the Games contributed to a new benchmark for international sports on an environmental and social level in line with the International Olympic Committee’s commitments. As well, the Sports for Sustainable Development Summit held before the Games enabled his country to launch the Paris Agreement for Sport and Sustainable Development supported by 39 States and 16 organizations.
At the close of the meeting, Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee, recalled how athletes in Paris competed fiercely against each other, yet lived peacefully together under one roof in the Olympic Village. Despite many of their countries being at war, they respected one another. “They created a culture of peace,” he pointed out. Emphasizing the global nature of the Olympic Games, he said that “everybody who respects the rules of the Olympic Charter is welcomed at the Olympic Games”.
In that context, he said that the International Olympic Committee was forced to suspend the membership of the Russian Olympic Committee because it “annexed sport organizations on the territory of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine”. Despite this suspension, however, Russian Federation athletes were allowed to participate in Paris in a neutral status. “We know that sport cannot create peace,” he said. Peace can only be created by political leaders. “This is why I appeal to you to heed this call of the athletes — give peace a chance,” he urged.
Speaking in exercise of the right of reply after the adoption, Ukraine’s representative stated that it is under the Russian Federation flag that Moscow tortures and kills Ukrainians and occupies Ukrainian territories. Belarus, as Moscow’s accomplice, is complicit in these crimes. “Therefore, the absence of Russian and Belarusian flags at global sporting events is a matter of essential hygiene that the international community must uphold,” he stressed.
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