Sports and Sport Education as a means to promote the enjoyment of human rights by refugees and migrants, as well as integration into local communities

28 September 2016

Excellencies, Colleagues and friends,

It is a pleasure to take part in this consideration of the role that sport may play in the promotion of welcome, compassion, tolerance, and acceptance for refugee and migrants.

The intense pressure on protection and entry systems for migrants and refugees – the product of demand/need unprecedented in recent memory is also of course a story of pressure on public systems that support integration and social cohesion within reception communities.
 
Integration is a question of policy and resources. Determined, decisive and humane steps must be taken to provide newcomers the access to essential services, education and labour markets and protection too – all of which are in line with states’ obligations and commitments under international law.

But integration is not just a question of that hardware.  It requires policies and opportunities for the softer enablers of integration – the fostering of an environment that the bonds of daily life lived in community can be nurtured – the warp and weft of a social fabric on which life lived side-by-side can flourish – in mutual respect no matter how distant our geographic origins, no matter how different our experiences no matter how diverse our identities.
 
In this sport can play a unique role.  It can foster belonging, a sense of shared interest and passion, common purpose that can set the ground for formation of many other bonds - in an atmosphere of comradeship, fairness and respect.  Language barriers and cultural differences fade into the background in the urgency of a great game.  
 
Sport can provide a path for newcomers, including migrants, on which to join, to participate, to succeed – socially and professionally. It can provide an opportunity to flourish, expand and celebrate talent.  And it can put to rest that untruth the difference always trumps commonality.

Look no further than at European football; for decades, many star players have been from diverse backgrounds – but on the field they have a common identity and goal.

International and regional sport federations have begun bringing active support to integration through sport. Almost as soon as the current wave of migration to Europe began, some sports clubs, sports leagues and more informal initiatives began to provide sport and leisure activities to newly arrived migrants. For example, the Union of European Football Associations supports the German Football Federation’s project “1:0 für ein Willkommen“ (1:0 for a Welcome), as well as the Danish Federation’s "Asylum League”, in which asylum-seekers from four residential centres are coached and equipped to compete.

To help guide such efforts, the Irish Football Association and the Vienna Institute for International Dialogue and Cooperation have published a handbook on “Migrants Volunteering in Sport”, with information from across Europe. The European Sport Inclusion Network has also set up a project called “Sport Welcomes Refugees”, which aims to enhance the integration of newly arrived migrants in sport and through sport, through training, awareness-raising and capacity-building. The project, which is led by Fairplay, Austria and other European sport organisations, brings together sport organisations and NGOs from countries including Austria, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary and Italy.
 
These are commendable initiatives. Symbolically and practically, their impact can be magnificent: we have only to think of Team Refugee’s performance at the Rio Olympics, and the lessons of resilience, endurance and creativity which they taught so many of us. They offer a way to highlight the contributions of migrants; and they bring activity and a sense of fun and achievement to the lives of asylum-seekers, who are so frequently deprived of the right to work.
 
Still, these projects y can be improved. Many initiatives in sport continue to ignore the existence of half of society. When the goal of a project is "inclusion", it needs to include women.

Also, a wider range of sport activities – in addition to football – could be offered, with an emphasis on integrating newcomers with long-standing residents.

In Sweden and Germany, one of the most traditional and eccentric of sporting pastimes, cricket, has taken off both countries in a big way – thanks to migrants from Afghanistan and other cricket-loving countries.

Overnight reports emerged in the media outlets of the resignation of the manager of a pretigeous national team.  The context it appears involved international movement of players, the representation of commercial interests in the context of an international league and an effort it appears by power and privilege to by pass the rules, under the cloak of clandestine exchange.
           
Playing by the rules – not rules that are invented or crafted at the convenience of power.  Understanding and respecting that it is the privileges of public image and all its trappings that cause not rights but responsibilities.  How sad that the world over power is so quick to assert its rights and down play its responsibilities for the rights of other.

To get it right, it is essential to consult the migrants themselves. They are the experts on what they need. 
 
Cooperative involvement in sports projects can boost the work of all kinds of actors: local authorities, institutions that assist asylum-seekers and migrants, NGOs and self-organisations of migrants can work together with local and national sports groups.
 
The Human Rights Council and other UN bodies could also have much to offer, as a space to exchange experiences and coordinate common approaches on a topic which provides little basis for political controversy but ample opportunities for successful cooperation. OHCHR is ready to join this common effort.

Excellencies,

I am convinced that sports can be a vehicle for accelerating respect for universal human rights. And by kick-starting the process of integration, it can provide an enormous boon for many societies. I hope by this time next year we will be seeing hundreds of sports initiatives for integration, across Western, Central and Eastern Europe and beyond!

Thank you.