The Peace and Sport Awards Reward the Best Initiatives for Reconciliation through Sport

In front of an audience of over 400 high-profile personalities from sport, politics, business and civil life assembled for the International Peace and Sport Forum, H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco and Joel Bouzou, President and Founder of the organisation, presented awards for five projects and symbolic moments that illustrate to extent sport is capable of helping to rebuild bridges between divided or opposed communities.

Award for the Best Peace Project from an International Sports Federation

This prize recognizes excellence from an International Federation which has put its sport at the service of social action, whilst also contributing to the sport’s national development.

The winner in this category was named as:  The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) for its development programmes which use the values of table tennis as an instrument of integration and social stability in severely disadvantaged urban areas in Afghanistan, Yemen, Jordan and Colombia.

Award for the Sports Event for Peace of the Year

This prize was awarded to an event that has demonstrated its ability to effectively promote a message of peace within identified communities. The winning event is the Laikipia Highlands Games in Kenya, jointly organized by the Gallmann Memorial Foundation and the Great Rift Valley Trust. The Games aim to ease ethnic tension in this region and encourage young athletes in Kenya.

Award for the Sports Non-Governmental Organization for Peace of the Year

This award is for NGOs which have demonstrated real expertise in its use of sport as a tool for peace education. Two winners were chosen in this category:

• Skateistan, an Afghan skate school focusing on education, sexual equality and cross-cultural understanding in Afghanistan.
• Play Soccer, which uses football to promote tolerance, sharing, loyalty and respect in Cameroon, Ghana, Malawi, Senegal, South Africa and Zambia.

Award for the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Initiative of the Year

This new Award category was created to reward an international corporation which has particularly demonstrated its involvement in citizenship by using sport as a tool for peace education.

The winner is Barclays, for its sponsorship program “Spaces for Sport” which aims to revitalize sports sites in disadvantaged communities in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Spain, the United States and Zambia.

The “Grand Prix”  Peace and Sport Image of the Year Award

During the Awards Ceremony, the prestigious Peace and Sport Image of the Year was presented to Lamine Diack, IAAF President for his initiative to unite the granddaughter of the German athlete Luz Long and the granddaughter of American champion Jesse Owens at the 2009 Athletics World Championships in Berlin, during the medal-giving for the long jump. This image perpetuates the courageous and unforgettable friendship between their grandfathers that began during the 1936 Olympics. It bears testimony to the immense power of sport to be stronger than hatred and extremism. The prize was awarded in partnership with SPORTELMonaco and Agence France-Presse.

The Peace and Sport Awards were inaugurated in 2008.