SHSNSA-96/CONF.202/3 PARIS, 14 October 1996 Original: French UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION 48th meeting of the Bureau of CIGEPS held jointly with the Bureau s Support Group and the Governing Board of FIDEPS Paris, UNESCO Headquarters (France), 26-27 September- 1996 REPORT Present Bureau of CIGEPS Chairperson Rapporteur-General Vice-Chairpersons and Co-ordinators Co-ordinator for the Latin America region Members Mr Peter Glass (Germany) Mr Daniel Ordofiez (Uruguay) Ms Raonimahary, Deputy Permanent Delegate of Madagascar Mr Li Zonggang (China) Dr Julio CCsar Maglione (Uruguay) Mr Pablo Gabriel Obregon, Ambassador of Colombia, Permanent Delegate Ms Ana Maria Upegui and Mr Henry Quintero, Delegation of Colombia Mr Pedro MO Amaro, Delegation of Uruguay Support Group Member Governing Board of FIDEPS Observers Secretariat Mr Amaldo Tivero Fuxa (Cuba) Mr Gerard Bolla Mr Marc Campagna Mr Juan Fabrega Mr Aldo Notario Ms Sylvie Espagnac (IOC) Mr Pierre Henquet (ICSSPE) Professor Jiirgen Palm (TAFISA) Mr Arthur Gillette, Representative of the Director-General, Director, Division of Youth and Sports Activities, Director, FIDEPS Mr Roger Bambuck, Special Adviser to the Director-General for Youth and Sport SHS-97KONF.202KLD. 1
-2- Mr Marcellin Dally, SHSNSA Ms Marie Jose Lallart, SHSNSA Mr Hamid Oussedik, SHSNSA Mr Yves Souchaud, SHSNSA Apologies for absence Mr Diego Barragan Correa (Colombia) Mr Michel Bedard (Canada) Mr Clement Ebozo o Eya a (Gabon) Mr Andre Gorgemans (WFSGI) Dr Vladimir Grieger (Slovakia) Dr Illona Kickbush (WHO) Mr Jean Lafleur (Canada) Mr Belhassen Lassoued (Tunisia) H.E. Mr Ranjevason (Madagascar) Mr Joel Raynaud (TAFISA) 1. UNESCO hosted at its Paris Headquarters, in the Bonvin building, the 48th meeting of the Bureau of CIGEPS, which was held jointly with the Support Group and the Governing Board of FIDEPS on 26 and 27 September 1996. 2. The session was opened by Mr Glass, the Chairperson, who then introduced the participants and made a short address in which he welcomed Mr Marcellin Dally, the new programme specialist responsible for sport, to the Division of Youth and Sports Activities. Item I of the agenda The provisional agenda, which comprised eight items, was amended and approved. Item II of the agenda The report of the 47th joint meeting, held from 25 to 27 March 1996 in Tunis (Tunisia), was also approved. Item III of the agenda The representative of the Director-General, Director of the Division of Youth and Sports Activities, Mr Arthur Gillette, referred to the forthcoming organization of the Fair Play Prize award ceremony, scheduled to be held in South Africa in December 1996, and stated that President Nelson Mandela had been nominated as the winner. Participants were most gratified to receive this information and applauded UNESCO s action in promoting the spirit of fair Play* Continuing his report on the major activities carried out by the Division of Youth and Sports Activities since the Tunis meeting, the representative of the Director-General highlighted the importance of promoting synergy between sport and culture in UNESCO s mission. (a) For example, an evenin g devoted to sport and poetry was organized by the Division of Youth and Sports Activities in May 1996, at the Organization s Headquarters in Paris, which aroused keen interest among the public.
-3- (b) The operation River-Town to River-Town, launched and organized in Italy from 26 May to 2 June 1996 by the association Free Culture on behalf of FIDEPS collected $35,000, which will be shared among the beneficiary countries (notably Bulgaria, Gambia, Georgia, Kenya and Mali) in the cause of sports solidarity between towns. This event brought together an impressive number of participants (of all ages), and received good local and international media coverage, in particular thanks to a worldwide CNN broadcast. The same concept was also successfully applied in Canada (11 municipalities are ready to launch similar schemes in order to support FlDEPS). During the meeting, cheques for a total of Canadian $3,000 were officially handed over to Mr Glass and Mr Gillette by Mr Campagna for the benefit of FIDEPS. (c) Particular attention was focused by UNESCO on the Pre-Olympic Scientific Congress held in Dallas, which was attended by the Director-General and by the Representative of the UNESCO Liaison Office in New York. (d) In August, Mr Roger Bambuck, Special Adviser to the Director-General, attended the SPORTIVAL event - involving street games and sports - organized in Zurich (Switzerland) by the recently founded International Federation for Street Games and Sports. This event is based on the principle of using sport as a means of taking over the park in the city of Zurich which has today become famous for being the haunt of young drug addicts. The aim was to rehabilitate the neighbourhood by organizing on-site sports activities adapted to a street environment, such as basketball, mini-football, etc. (e) Mr Bambuck also drew attention to the CODE JUBILE project, whose purpose is to organize, on the occasion of the celebration of UNESCO s fiftieth anniversary on 2 and 3 November 1996, sports and cultural events relayed by 300 television stations, whose participants will include such international stars from the worlds of music and of sport as Michel Platini, Frantz Beckenbauer and PelC. Clusters of activities will be organized in several countries, thereby creating a global sports and cultural event whose potential television audience should exceed 2 billion viewers. (f) Mr Bambuck concluded by referring to the VIth World Congress on Sport for All and for the Family, held from 21 to 24 April 1996 in Seoul, whose final report is currently being prepared. (g) Under the FIDEPS programme, Mr Gillette went on a symbolic yachting trip on the Baltic Sea in August last to present basketball equipment to the National Commissions for UNESCO of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for the young people of those countries, in a total amount of $2,800, a gift funded in particular by the contribution of the Swedish Sports Confederation. (h) A study on diet and sport in the LDCs carried out by Mr Souchaud, of the Division of Youth and Sports Activities, is currently being finalized, and partnerships with the private sector are being planned with a view to its operational implementation. (i) Young secondary-school students from the Paris suburbs travelled by sea from Guadeloupe to metropolitan France, on a trip sponsored by FlDEPS. The experience proved to be a highly positive one, enabling these young people to live together in the confined space of the boat and to give proof of a spirit of fellowship and a readiness to share and adapt, while at the same time communicating with other young people via the Internet.
-4- (j) Two ceremonies were organized by the Division of Youth and Sports Activities in May and July. The first was a gala evening, attended by George Weah, on behalf of young people in Liberia living in a post-conflict situation, while the second brought together at UNESCO Headquarters high-level sportsmen and women, for the most part African and European, who had been selected for the Atlanta Games, to take part in a solidarity campaign whose highlight was the presentation of a manifesto on behalf of Sport for All. (k) The operation Hope and solidarity through ball games launched by Ms Lallart has been focused on the dispatch of sports equipment to the Gaza Strip (Adidas has offered to provide 20,000 items of sports gear to an estimated value of US $1,500,000, of which US $50,000 represent transport costs). Sports equipment has also been distributed in Rwanda (2,000 kilograms) and in Haiti (2,000 kilograms). By and large, these operations have received the support of the International Military Sports Council (CISM) (notably the armies of France, Luxembourg, Germany and the United States), a fact welcomed by participants, who noted that the military was thereby contributing to the maintenance of peace through international solidarity. Operations on a similar scale are planned for Cambodia and Cuba. A special commendation was addressed to DHL, whose support proved extremely valuable on the occasion of the shipment of sports equipment to Rwanda. (1) An evaluation mission conducted in Georgia in December 1995 by Mr Gillette and Ms Lallart also led to the distribution of sports equipment. As a follow-up to that mission, Mr Andre Gorgemans (WFSGI) travelled to Georgia to undertake a survey of all the factories that could be rehabilitated and converted to the manufacture of sports gear; likewise, Mr Gilbert Trigano was approached with a view to his helping to relaunch sports tourism. (m) Mr Gillette reported on his participation, from 6 to 8 May 1996, in the International Consultative Forum on Technical Assistance relating to Youth and Sport in Developing Countries organized by IOC in Lausanne. The exchanges between the different categories of participants proved most rewarding. It must however be noted that a crucial amendment was introduced into a final draft resolution which recommended that similar events be organized in the future but referred to these under the title International Olympic Forum for Development, an amendment on which the representative of UNESCO, an intergovernmental organization, was not mandated to vote. In point of fact, the draft resolution was neither put to the vote nor was it the subject of any explicit consensus. (n) Mr Gillette then drew attention to the submission of the working documents for the preparation of UNESCO s Programme and Budget for 1998-1999 and to the external evaluation carried out of UNESCO s activities in the field of sport. The analysis of replies made by Member States in connection with sport, for the purpose of preparing the Programme and Budget for the next biennium, showed, firstly, that the results of the evaluation were unknown to at least one Member State, and, secondly, that opinions were divided as to UNESCO s action in regard to PES. In regard to UNESCO s Budget, the need to strengthen extra-budgetary fund raising was reasserted recently by the Director-General on the occasion of a meeting with staff members. Participants applauded the activities carried out by the Division of Youth and Sports Activities, but remained concerned at the lack of information on them. Encouragement was unanimously voiced for making such information available to Member States via UNESCO s information channels. A number of suggestions were put forward in favour of the Division s proceeding to systematize such information, and participants expressed the wish that concrete
-5- proposals be laid before them at the next meeting, in a bid to ensure that UNESCO s action enjoyed a higher profile. Item IV of the agenda (a) Before examining item IV of the agenda, the Assistant Director-General for the Social and Human Sciences Sector, Ms Francine Fournier, welcomed participants and took the opportunity to recall the position of the Director-General, who is anxious that UNESCO s action in the field of sport should be revitalized, in particular through the promotion of the spirit of fair play, of sport as a core factor of solidarity and of equal access to the practice of sport for all, as well as the promotion of human rights, and through a concern to gear UNESCO s action to programmes and to identifiable needs. She went on to stress the hopes placed in the work of the 48th meeting of CIGEPS. (b) Mr Gillette then presented, by way of an introduction to what was undoubtedly the most important item on the meeting s agenda, a brief historical recapitulation of the events and factors (as these were reflected in the external evaluation of UNESCO s action in the field of PES carried out in 1994-1995) which had prompted the Director-General to wish to submit to the General Conference at its next session (October-November 1997) a proposal for a new UNESCO structure in this field, one that was both streamlined and revitalized. In accordance with the conclusions of the last joint meeting, a Drafting Group had prepared a text on behalf of all member countries of the Bureau, the Support Group and the Governing Board, which was subsequently communicated to them. Supplemented by the comments received from its recipients, the document had been transmitted on behalf of Mr Glass to the Director-General, accompanied, as the latter had wished, by the (positive) assessments of Mr Gillette and Mr Bambuck. On the occasion of the IXth Pre-Olympic Scientific Conference (Dallas, July 1996), the Director-General separately invited Professor Paavo V. Komi, Chairperson of ICSSPE, to submit the comments of his organization on the proposals concerning the restructuring of CIGEPS. Mr Pierre Henquet, representing the Council, briefly summed up the main observations which were to be formulated in Mr Komi s written reply (the text of which is attached). During the ensuing discussions, participants who took the floor on this item confirmed the cogency of the analysis on which Mr Glass s proposals were based, and expressed their agreement on the objectives to be assigned to this new structure. Do the recommendations proper, which provide for the setting up of a structure composed of representatives of 12 Member States, elected for a six-year term on the basis of two representatives for each of the six regions as these are defined by UNESCO, measure up to the proclaimed intentions? A number of questions were raised in this regard, bearing in particular on the representativeness of so scaled-down an intergovernmental body, and on its ability to reflect the diversity of such a complex issue as PES and on the possibilities of increasing the budgetary resources allocated to a field which, as the Director-General asserted in his Green Note of October 1995, must remain at the heart of UNESCO s action. At a time when, in the great majority of the world s countries, both the number and the diversity of the people involved in the development of physical activities and sport are constantly tendin g to increase, thereby calling for a partnership which allies government bodies at the central, regional and local levels with the whole range of fora and players in civil
-6- society, it would seem eminently desirable to design the planned new structure to take account of this trend. It was accordingly agreed to recommend the establishment of a joint structure associating government officials with the main partners in the private, voluntary and nongovernmental sectors (in particular, IOC, INGOs and foundations) and with representatives of the other intergovernmental agencies concerned (such as WHO, UNICEF and UNDP). Participants considered that the new CIGEPS, a better name for which would be the Committee for Sport and Physical Education, should be set up by the General Conference, which would then elect the representatives of the 12 Member States. The selection criteria, and the list of non-governmental partners and intergovernmental organizations invited to send representatives to its meetings, would have to be spelt out subsequently in statutory texts, which should be drafted for the purpose. The new Committee would be required to take its decisions by consensus. The suggestion put forward by the representative of ICSSPE to incorporate, in each of the major programmes and transdisciplinary projects included in the Programme and Budget for 1998-1999 (29 C/5), at least one project or activity relating to PES should also be adopted. The proposal to modify the present structure of CIGEPS and FIDEPS was thus approved, and should be transmitted to the Director-General of UNESCO, together with a scenario outlining the procedure to be followed and the stages to be completed in order for a final decision to be taken at the twenty-ninth session of the General Conference (Paris, 1997). Item V of the agenda (a) A proposal was submitted to the Director-General by ICSSPE aimed at setting up a subregional sports information clearing-house for the South Pacific region. (b) It is planned to repeat or reactivate certain activities that have already proved a success and to provide support for a number of new projects: River-town to river-town, Sportival, Hope Corner, Hope and solidarity through ball games, revitalization of the Fair Play Prize, organization of a Round Table in San Salvador in 1997 on the Arnaldo River0 Fuxa report on Central America, and an action strategy currently being developed by the Division of Youth and Sports Activities. Mr Glass has proposed that CIGEPS, CISM and the Council of Europe jointly engage in a partnership scheme to promote sport for the disabled in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This proposal was accepted by the participants. Item VI of the agenda In accordance with the wish expressed by Mr Glass at the last joint meeting, one sitting was devoted to the presentation and discussion of three programmes carried out in partnership with UNESCO. The first of these was the Second World Festival of Traditional Games and Sports (Bangkok, lo-16 December 1996), which was presented by Professor J. Palm, Chairperson of TAFISA, and is sponsored by the Director-General of UNESCO, will be the occasion for a substantive meeting organized by ICSSPE and TAFISA under contract to UNESCO. Mr Pierre Henquet, Deputy Secretary-General of ICSSPE, then provided a summary of the background, objectives, activities and structures of that worldwide NGO. Finally, Mr A. River0 Fuxa (INDER, Cuba) gave full details of the programme which he has elaborated, in his capacity as a UNESCO consultant, for developing Sport for Peace in
-7- Central America, and the relationship between that programme and the plan to promote sport adopted by the newly founded Association of Caribbean States. The participants warmly welcomed the presentation of programmes made at the Committee s invitation. For its next meeting, CISM and IOC have accordingly been invited to take the floor. Item VII of the agenda Mr Glass proposed that greater emphasis be placed on establishing a higher profile for the activities conducted by UNESCO in the field of sport, for example by creating an appropriate logo. This suggestion will be the subject of an agenda item for the next meeting. Under this item ( Miscellaneous ), Mr Campagna reported on the setting up of a permanent secretariat in Canada for the purpose of organizing a Forum on Sport. A report on the progress achieved in implementing this project will be presented at the next joint CIGEPS/FIDEPS meeting. Item VIII of the agenda The next meeting of CIGEPS will be held in Uruguay, in late March 1997, at the kind invitation of the government of that country. A proposal to organize a meeting of CIGEPS in 1998 and to hold MINEPS III in the year 2000 was put forward by the participants.