In November 2013, Save the Dream co-hosted a conference titled “Sport Integrity: A Right for Youth” at the Palais des Nations, United Nations in Geneva, organized jointly by the Permanent Missions of Italy and Qatar to the International Organizations in Geneva, in partnership with the Group of Friends on Sport for Development and Peace, Lega Italiana Sport Professionistico (Lega Pro) and the International Centre for Sport Security.
The conference aimed to raise awareness within the international community on the impact of breaches to sport integrity on human rights, particularly with regard to children and youth worldwide, and to showcase concrete efforts being undertaken to use sport as a tool for education, development, personal growth and peace.
H.E. Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Chair of Save the Dream, tabled a proposal for an “International Sport Integrity Day”. Save the Dream ambassador Penny Heyns reminded delegates of the crucial role of sport in developing human potential, reiterated in H.E. Staffan de Mistura, High-Level Panel member’s powerful closing remarks “I feel very strongly about this initiative because in my 42 years in the United Nations, in war zones, I could see how many opportunities we had in order to combine peace and sport, education and sport, child protection and sport”.
Important steps were made towards creating a forum for dialogue, involving all stakeholders, to increase awareness and shape joint intervention in the field of child protection in sport. An official report on the conference was subsequently published and is available online.
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