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Basic Course 5: Peace Education and Fair Play
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"Fair play is much more than playing to the rules of the
game; it's about the attitude of sportspeople. It's about respecting your opponent and preserving his or her physical and psychological
integrity. Sportspeople that empathize with their opponents play fair."
(Extract from the "Declaration of the International Fair Play Committee")
Sport can play an important role in "teaching real life lessons" and imparting skills and
values. And it is for this reason that sport is an important part of peace
education. Sport provides a particularly good way of leaning and practicing fairness as a key
qualification. The following text provides an overview of the role that sport and fair play can play in promoting peace
education. A separate section has been dedicated to each of the aspects addressed on this
page:
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Fair Play:
Definition, principles and rules; fair trade in footballs, working conditions in the sports articles industry
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Sport and Preventing Violence:
Mediation in soccer
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Practical examples:
Midnight basketball as a way of countering violence; street football for peace; Olympic Games in war zones
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The United Nations regards sport as an important instrument for achieving its Millenium Development Goals. Because sport imparts the following important skills and values:
Skills
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The ability to cooperate |
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The ability to communicate |
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To respect agreed rules |
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To deal with conflicts constructively |
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Understanding |
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Relationships to others |
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Leadership qualities |
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Respect for others
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Appreciation of effort |
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The ability to win |
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The ability to lose |
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Planning for competition |
Values
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Fair Play |
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Sharing |
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Self-esteem |
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Trust |
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Honesty |
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Self-respect |
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Tolerance |
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Indestructibility |
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Teamwork |
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Discipline |
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Trust |
[Sport for Development and Peace. Towards Achieving the Millenium Development Goals. Report from the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on Sport for Development and Peace. United Nations, 2003 - http://www.un.org/themes/sport/task.htm]
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The role of sport in refugee
work, development and reconciliation
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"When one is active in
sports, one does not commit genocide“ - these were the words used by a
schoolgirl after managing to survive unimaginable atrocities in Rwanda during
its civil war in 1994. Four years after the war, she took part in a training program
organized by the Rwandan government and the Rwandan Olympic Committee. The aim of this program was to train as many keen young sportspeople as possible and qualify them as volleyball
trainers. Once their training was completed, it was hoped that they would make a contribution towards helping children and young adults to overcome the traumas of war by
encouraging sporting activity and promoting team spirit in a positive way.
Sport has also been successfully implemented as part of the
reconciliation process that is necessary at the end of violent conflicts. In particular for
ethno-political conflicts, sport offers a way of bringing people together from both sides of the conflict who would otherwise have little opportunity of meeting up and getting to know each other without the concrete reason that sport
offers. Sporting get-togethers of this kind are sometimes organized on
"safe" foreign soil to avoid problematic pressure.
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Millions of refugees live in camps and depend on outside
help. These people are desperate for alternatives and short-term prospects at the very least.
"Sport and leisure are essential for the survival of all children.
Indeed, when it comes to helping child refugees, sport and leisure are irreplaceable as methods of rebuilding shattered lives", says Sadako
Ogata, High Commissioner of the UN Refugee
Organization UNHCR. This UN organization has been working in a camp in Tanzania since 1998 in which over 20,800 young refugees are being
accommodated. No one knows how long they will have stay. In cases such as
these, the UNHCR asks international and national sporting associations to support them in their work and interesting cooperation programs have been
developed. |
Non-governmental organizations such as
"Bread for the World" actively support self-help projects in which sport plays an important part in a number of countries across the
world. Those involved in projects, be they in Africa, Asia, Latin America or Eastern Europe, know that sport can play a pivotal role in at least beginning the process of overcoming serious social
deficiencies. Sport promotes social interaction among street children and offers incentives to develop the kinds of skills and abilities necessary for finding a way into
work.
Sport and the prevention of violence
The contribution that sport makes towards building up and promoting
civilized society stretches far beyond the boundaries of war zones and areas of
crisis. Indeed, it is well known that even the most established of democracies are not without their fair share of conflict and
violence. The USA offers an excellent example of how sport can be used to prevent violence among
youngsters.
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The "Midnight Games" have become a striking symbol of the way in which sport can be used to prevent violence and
criminality. Basketball games take place between 10pm and 2am and have been set up with the aim of preventing American
youths from slipping into the dangerous world of drugs and criminality.
Following the initial trials in 1986, the Midnight Basketball
League, MBL, has been established to run alongside the National Basketball Association
League, NBA. 10,000 young sportspeople are involved in this league. Most of the MBL players are
Afro-Americans, meaning that they tend to come from the largest communities making up the poorest city
districts. |
The players are not paid and have to attend an hour-long debate before every
game. These discussions touch on a wide range of issues. How should I prepare for a job interview with a new
employer? How can I resolve conflicts without resorting to violence? How can I protect myself from AIDS and resist the temptation of
drugs? Garry A. Sailes, Professor of Sports Sociology at the University of Indiana, sums up the
program: "The MBL offers youths from the poorest districts the opportunity to play
basketball, but also the opportunity to discover a sense of identity and
self-confidence."
Midnight games are now also happening in Germany in a number of
forms. It's the local municipalities in conjunction with sports clubs and the police that are usually involved in organizing and promoting the
games. Dominik Hermle is one of those involved in organizing the midnight games in Stuttgart:
"The aim of our project is to counter the social problems associated with young people such as
criminality, poverty, drug dependency and unemployment. While sport cannot solve these
problems, it can contribute in a large number of ways. Sport can have a positive effect on other areas of life, can help to reduce aggressive
behavior, can strengthen self-confidence, can teach tolerance for others and can teach youngsters about
responsibility. The youngsters in Stuttgart have taken to the project.“
Yet for all
this, the Midnight Games represent only one particularly spectacular way of promoting violence prevention through sport and is only a suitable method for certain groups of
youths. There have been a number of publications and documents published that explain how to learn through example in
sport, how to behave fairly with others and how to deal with conflict in a constructive way.
Fair play in one world
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Ommo Grupe is a sports scientist who
writes: "In addition to the principle of ability and effort that is linked to
fairness, the thing that really characterizes the Olympic Games is the incredibly
large variety of sports that it encompasses. Indeed, set against the multicultural world with which the Olympic Games is more involved today than ever
before, it has to work very hard to preserve this sporting variety. It is this variety that particularly corresponds to the
Olympic values of peacefulness, respect for each other and
internationality. Of course, while not being enough to resolve conflicts on its
own, it does provide models for dealing with conflict. Olympic-orientated sports clearly
place the acceptance of others at the top of their agenda. Moreover, it
can also generate acceptance when it is resolute in its stance against
discrimination, be it racial, religious or sexual in its nature." |
Fairness means sticking to the agreed
rules, equal opportunity, considerate behavior, respect for the opponent, the acceptance of
others and not using unfair advantages. Fairness as a basic sporting and moral principle is under threat in today's
world, not only in sport, but also in other areas of civil society. Yet at the same time, fair play offers opportunities that can be understood for finding one's way in a very competitive
world.
[Uli Jäger, Institut für Friedenspädagogik Tübingen e.V.]
Basic course 5 offers more sections dedicated to the following subjects:
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