ENHANCING SOCIAL INCLUSION, PREVENTING CONFLICT AND BUILDING PEACE
Sport alone cannot prevent conflict or build peace. However, it can contribute to broader, more com- prehensive efforts. Sport helps to build relationships across social, economic and cultural divides and builds a sense of shared identity and fellowship among groups that might otherwise be inclined to view each other with distrust and hostility. While evaluative evidence on sport’s use to meet peace objectives is limited, there is significant anecdotal evidence that sport is being used successfully to:
· Promote social inclusion — Sport can help reduce social tensions by reaching out to socially excluded groups. It has been used successfully to connect excluded groups to com- munity services and supports, enhance their human and social capital, rebuild their self- confidence and self-esteem, shine a spotlight on the structural causes of their exclusion and provide solutions. Sport is being used effectively to reduce youth vulnerability to militia and gang recruitment by offering an alternative way to achieve a sense of belonging and purpose, providing a reason to remain in their communities, helping them to adopt a more critical per- spective toward involvement in conflict, and enabling them to envision more peaceful ways to play a valued social role.
· Provide respite in periods of conflict —Through agreements like the Olympic Truce, sport can open a window for temporary aid and humanitarian relief for civilians in periods of conflict. At the community level, regular, organized sport activity in a safe and supervised setting can provide im- portant opportunities for healthy, secure, stress-free enjoyment for people of all ages, but particularly for children who may be more easily traumatized by conflict.
· Build trust and establish bridges between groups in conflict — Sport, at the community and elite level, has been used on many occasions to create bridges and sustain positive relationships between those on opposing sides of conflicts. Sport is also actively used by many peace- keeping missions to build trust with local populations and to help defuse local tensions. Well-designed sport activities that incorporate the best values of sport — respect for one’s opponent, fair play, team- work, and adherence to mutually agreed upon rules — can also help individuals to build the values and skills necessary to prevent and resolve conflict in their own lives.
· Build peace in post-conflict situations — Sport provides a shared ritual that can help “re -humanize” opposing groups in each other’s eyes. Shared sport experiences cause participants to in- creasingly feel that they are alike, rather than different, helping to build empathy and erase the dehu- manizing effects of persistent negative characterizations by opposing groups. Sport is also an effec- tive tool for promoting truth-telling processes that are increasingly being used to foster reconciliation after prolonged periods of civil conflict. Regular sport activities are being used with success to address war-related trauma and promote healing. They provide safe spaces that enable victims of conflict to
90
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102