IOC and UN reaffirm commitment to development through sport
The President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Jacques Rogge, welcomed United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, where the two leaders reviewed the joint activities that the organisations had put in place in 2010 and reaffirmed their commitment to a number of upcoming initiatives using sport as a tool for peace, education and development.
By using sport as a tool for change, the IOC and its partners have implemented various activities across the globe in fields such as humanitarian assistance, peace-building, education, gender equality, the environment and the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Among upcoming projects are the joint efforts that will be deployed to find solutions to ease access of Palestinian and Israeli athletes to sporting competitions and the adoption by the UN of the Olympic Truce Resolution for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Further to the success of the first Olympic Youth Development Centre inaugurated last year in Lusaka, Zambia, as part of the IOC’s Sports for Hope programme, it was decided to replicate the concept in Haiti.
