Bri­an Lewis

The Unit­ed Na­tions (UN) and the In­ter­na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tee (IOC) have a shared com­mit­ment to pro­mote a cul­ture of non vi­o­lence and peace through sport. The T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) is just as keen as the UN and the IOC to ad­vo­cate, pro­mote and fa­cil­i­tate peace and non vi­o­lence through sport.

Bal­anc­ing the com­pet­ing and at times con­tra­dic­to­ry de­mands of high per­for­mance, sport for all and the use of sport as a tool to ad­dress so­cial needs can be over­whelm­ing for na­tion­al sport or­gan­i­sa­tions faced with re­source lim­i­ta­tions and con­straints.

There are six glob­al ac­tiv­i­ties that the In­ter­na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tee (IOC) and the Na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tees (NOCs) de­vote their time, re­sources and en­er­gy:

Sport for All, De­vel­op­ment through Sport, Women and Sport, Ed­u­ca­tion through Sport, Peace through Sport as well as Sport and En­vi­ron­ment. It's not al­ways or on­ly about elite and high per­for­mance sport. Olympic and oth­er mul­ti-sport games and the fo­cus on the podi­um is not the be all and end all of what the Olympic move­ment is about.

In­for­ma­tion avail­able on both the IOC and UN Web sites high­light an his­toric de­ci­sion, the Unit­ed Na­tions (UN) Gen­er­al As­sem­bly made on Au­gust 23, when by con­sen­sus an In­ter­na­tion­al Day of Sport for De­vel­op­ment and Peace was ap­proved.

The Day will be cel­e­brat­ed each year on April 6, by UN mem­ber states and oth­er stake­hold­ers.

The IOC and the UN both have a long-stand­ing com­mit­ment to us­ing sport as a tool for so­cial change, and have worked to­geth­er on a wide range of projects, in­clud­ing the or­gan­i­sa­tion of a joint bi­en­ni­al In­ter­na­tion­al Fo­rum on Sport for Peace and De­vel­op­ment.

The for­mer IOC Pres­i­dent Jacques Rogge in his ad­dress to the Gen­er­al As­sem­bly af­ter the im­por­tant de­ci­sion had been tak­en said:

"The true worth of sport is de­ter­mined not by words on pa­per, but by how sport is prac­tised. Stripped of its val­ues, sport is com­bat by an­oth­er name.

"Sport with val­ues is a gate­way to cul­tur­al un­der­stand­ing, ed­u­ca­tion, health and eco­nom­ic and so­cial de­vel­op­ment. We have seen the true worth of sport and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty many times.

"It helps young peo­ple learn the val­ue of self-dis­ci­pline and goal-set­ting. It builds self-con­fi­dence. It de­fies gen­der stereo­types.

"It pro­vides an al­ter­na­tive to con­flict and delin­quen­cy. It can bring hope and a sense of pur­pose to refugees, im­pov­er­ished com­mu­ni­ties and oth­er peo­ple in need. It helps keep young peo­ple in school, it brings health."

The IOC en­cour­ages the use of sport as a tool for hu­man de­vel­op­ment, in par­tic­u­lar among young peo­ple.

The UN In­ter-Agency Task Force on Sport for De­vel­op­ment and Peace de­fined sport, for the pur­pos­es of de­vel­op­ment, as "all forms of phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty that con­tribute to phys­i­cal fit­ness, men­tal well-be­ing and so­cial in­ter­ac­tion, such as play, recre­ation, or­gan­ised or com­pet­i­tive sport, and in­dige­nous sports and games."

This de­f­i­n­i­tion has since then been ac­cept­ed by many pro­po­nents of Sport for De­vel­op­ment and Peace.

Ac­cord­ing to the Sport for De­vel­op­ment and Peace In­ter­na­tion­al Work­ing Group sport is seen to have the most ben­e­fits in:

In­di­vid­ual de­vel­op­ment

Health pro­mo­tion and dis­ease pre­ven­tion

Pro­mo­tion of gen­der equal­i­ty

So­cial in­te­gra­tion and the de­vel­op­ment of so­cial cap­i­tal

Peace build­ing and con­flict pre­ven­tion/res­o­lu­tion

Post-dis­as­ter/trau­ma re­lief and nor­mal­i­sa­tion of life

Eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and so­cial mo­bil­i­sa­tion.

Sport has his­tor­i­cal­ly played an im­por­tant role in all so­ci­eties, be it in the form of com­pet­i­tive sport, phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty or play.

In light of the high crime rate and the in­creas­ing in­ci­dents of vi­o­lence in the school pop­u­la­tion here in T&T sport needs to play a greater part in the ef­forts to ad­dress crime and vi­o­lence.

Bri­an Lewis is the pres­i­dent of the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee. The views ex­pressed are not nec­es­sar­i­ly those of the TTOC. For more in­for­ma­tion about the IOC, TTOC and the Olympic Games vis­it www.ttoc.org.