POSTED: Tuesday September 21st 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

H.S.H. Prince Albert II Receives a United Nations Award for His Commitment to Promote Peace through Sport

Peace and Sport is honoured in the “Millennium Development Goals” Awards

“Contributing to peace is the most beautiful fight sport can offer. And this fight, we need to win it together.”

This message, conveyed by Joel Bouzou, President and Founder of Peace and Sport and Advisor to His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco was warmly applauded by 500 Heads of State, sports champions and major international decision-makers gathered at the Waldorf Astoria in New York on 19th September for the prestigious "Millennium Development Goals” Awards (MDG Awards).

Organized by the MDG Awards Committee and the UN Office for Partnerships, this event pays tribute to governments and individuals from civil society who have made remarkable and exemplary efforts to contribute to the achievement of the United Nations Millenium Development Goals.

During his speech Joel Bouzou said: “Sport can offer better than the individual performance, it can help achieve a collective and social target; in a way, I consider it a normal pay back to the community for all the good things sport brought to me. (...) Now, day after day, through Peace and Sport, I feel the strength of sport and how much it can change the mentalities and habits. Six weeks ago, I was in Haiti where we have developed a program in partnership with UNICEF and the Haitian Olympic Committee in the refugee camps. The eyes of these youths, boys and girls, forgetting for one hour the surrounding chaos, that was something fantastic.”

H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, in his capacity of High Patron of “Peace and Sport, l’Organisation pour la Paix par le Sport" received a Special Award in recognition of his “global leadership and passionate commitment as a champion of the cause of peace through sport”.

In a message read out by Joel Bouzou during the ceremony, the Sovereign of the Principality of Monaco declared:

“Over the years, as a Head of State, a member of the International Olympic Committee and an athlete, I have had the great fortune to personally witness many examples of excellent work and efforts to help towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals thanks to Sport.”

“The conviction I want to share with you today is that it is our responsibility and duty, governments and individuals, to foster the use of Sport for peace-building purposes and increase its contribution towards achieving the Goals. You can rely on my personal commitment and the involvement of the Principality of Monaco to make this happen.”

This accolade, on the eve of the 65th United Nations General Assembly, represents a major step in the development the Peace and Sport organization, whose principal objective is to raise awareness amongst world leaders about the immense potential of sport to contribute to sustainable peace, to reconciling populations and to education.

The next day, HSH Prince Albert II, who is also Co-Chair of the Group of Friends on Sport for Development and Peace, a member of the International Olympic Committee and a former Olympian, and Joel Bouzou both took part in a Roundtable with the theme "The Value of Sport as a Development Tool”, organized by the United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace.  The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, opened this work session.

For more information, please contact :

+33. (0)6.8337.6621 - press@peace-sport.org
http://www.peace-sport.org

About Peace and Sport

Peace and Sport, L’Organisation pour la Paix par le Sport is a neutral and apolitical international initiative.

Peace and Sport puts sport and its structuring values at the heart of development projects led within communities in crisis around the world. With interventions in areas of post-conflict, extreme poverty or lacking social cohesion, Peace and Sport makes sport a vehicle for tolerance, respect, sharing and citizenship at the service of sustainable peace.

Supported by governments, world sport governing bodies, international organizations, major international companies in the private sector and international sports champions, Peace and Sport creates synergies between various different stakeholders to carry out four types of action:

-      Organizing an annual International Forum (next edition in Monaco , 1 - 3 December 2010)

-      a Resource Centre for sport and peace,

-      the Peace and Sport Awards, to reward individuals and initiatives contributing to peace,

-      Locally-Based Projects; concrete actions in different regions of crisis in the world.

Today, Peace and Sport has operations in Cote d'Ivoire , Burundi , Israel-Palestine, Timor Leste, Colombia and Haiti .

Peace and Sport was founded by Joel Bouzou, current President of the organisation. Mr. Bouzou is an Olympic medallist, world champion of Modern Pentathlon and current Secretary General for the International Union of Modern Pentathlon (UIPM). He is also an Advisor to H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco.

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Keywords · UN · Peace and Sport · Prince Albert of Monaco · Joel Bouzou

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Name: Valerie Amant
Organization: Peace and Sport
Email:
Phone: +33. (0)6.8337.6621
URL: http://www.peace-sport.org

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