The International Olympic Truce Centre (IOTC), Save the Dream, the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), and the European Multisport Club Association (EMCA) have recently organised a transnational joint meeting co-hosted by the Sports Diplomacy and Governance Hub & Sport, Human Rights & Safeguarding Research Group at the SOAS University of London.
The Europe-focused transnational meeting was organized within the framework of the two-years project “Network for the Exchange of Good Practices on the Integration of Youngsters at Risk of Radicalisation through Sport” dubbed as Radical (Ex)Change led by (IOTC) as the project lead.Funded by the EU’s Directorate-General for Education and Culture, the project was designed, jointly with Save the Dream, UIB and EMCA.
The transnational meeting brought together over 20 experts from Spain, Belgium, Greece, Italy and the UK, including representatives from the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), as well as other regional and local organizations, grassroots associations, NGOs, academic institutions, and experts in the prevention of marginalisation and radicalisation through sport.
During the meeting, the project partners discussed a new Handbook on “The Prevention of Radicalisation of Youth Through Sports” to assist local organizations, grassroots associations, NGOs, counselling boards, municipalities, academic institutions, and experts to address marginalisation and radicalisation through sport.
Katerina Salta, Sport for Protection Programme Manager at the IOTC said: “Europe is facing unbalanced situations for young people: lack of opportunities and real cultural interaction, economical disadvantages, religious confrontation, gender discrimination, political changes, leading to the arising of extremist positions that can lead to radicalization.
Sport has been proven to be an impactful tool to combat radicalization of communities at risk, which can be used as a means towards inclusion of refugees in the host society, integration of disadvantaged youngsters on the labour market, or reconciliation of populations torn by war. By equipping the sporting community and front-line workers fighting radicalisation with concrete and efficient tools based on sport practices that can concretely develop skills and foster resilience of youth at risk, the European society will indeed become more inclusive, peaceful and overall resilient to negative streams. “
Representing the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), Andrea Rodriguez, said:“Sport has been proven to have the capacity to appeal to youth, making it a very efficient tool in promoting positive values targeted at vulnerable members of society. Jointly with partners like the ICSS we aim to both promote sport and its values to build resilience to violent extremism, especially among youth, and to support and guide Members States to integrate sport values-based initiatives within action plans for the Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE).”
In his keynote address at the meeting, Massimiliano Montanari, Massimiliano Montanari, CEO of Save the Dream said: “At all latitudes, our societies are exposed to a virulent spread of violent extremism, with many of these threats coming from groups that seek to devaluate other groups and individuals, destabilize communities and radicalize youth.
The prevention of violent extremism through sport builds on the unique ability of sport to engage youth actively and meaningfully, and to gain access to those young people who are often hard to reach through more formal interventions.”
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