6 April 2017: International Day of Sport for Development and Peace

On the occasion of the 2017 International Day of Sport for Development and Peace (IDSDP) on 6 April the United Nations will launch the digital campaign #WePlayTogether to encourage organizations and individuals who support or carry out sport for development and peace activities to partake in the commemoration of the IDSDP.

The campaign invites participants to share a picture on social media that represents for them the “power of sport to promote peace, unity and inclusion.”

The UN Secretary-General calls for the campaign to make “2017 a year for peace.”

In addition to harnessing Goal 16 “Peace, justice and strong institutions,” the IDSDP campaign will also raise awareness about sport’s contribution to Goal 10 “Reducing inequalities” and Goal 11 “Sustainable cities and communities” of the Sustainable Development Goals in promoting initiatives that include refugees and people with disabilities.

People can send a photograph that shows how in an initiative, event, project or community sport brings people together in a positive way promoting peace, unity and inclusion to sport@unog.ch with information on the activity, such as location, occasion and a brief description of the project or event, as well as photo credit.

The United Nations Office of Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSDP) will showcase the pictures received on its social media channels and select the best photos to be shown in an exhibition at the United Nations in the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, "Sport promotes health and well-being. It fosters tolerance, mutual understanding and peace ... It empowers, inspires and unites."

The United Nations proclaimed on 23 August 2013 that the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace would be celebrated on 6 April each year. This date also marks the opening of the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896.

https://www.un.org/sport/node/203641

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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