UNHCR is awarded the "Fair Play for Peace Award"
On 5 September 2024, the UN Refugee Agency was awarded the "Fair Play for Peace Award" for its ongoing work to improve the lives of refugees, displaced and stateless persons through sport, in particular following the launch of the Agency's "More than a Game" sport strategy which promotes sport as a powerful vehicle for peace, inclusion and social cohesion.
The "Fair Play Peace Award" is awarded annually by the European Fair Play Movement to an institution or association in recognition of its work to highlight the impact of sport in spreading the positive values of peace and solidarity throughout the world.
The UNHCR was honoured with the award on 5 September 2024, during the fifth edition of World Fair Play Day. UNHCR accepted the award in recognition of the role that sport can play in improving refugees' lives. In November 2022, the Agency released the UNHCR Sport Strategy 2022-2026 - "More than a Game" - which outlines UNHCR’s ambition to expand the use of sport and strengthen engagement with the sport ecosystem to benefit refugees, asylum-seekers, returnees, internally displaced persons and stateless persons, and their host communities. In this strategy, the UNHCR recognizes that sport plays a role that extends far beyond the practical project or programme-based interventions to other areas of intervention and collaboration, including communications, advocacy, sport diplomacy and resource mobilization.
For further details, you can read this press release (in French).