AGI – Uefa and Unhcr, the United Nations Refugee Agency, have signed a cooperation protocol for support refugee access to sport and improve social inclusion.
The agreement commits the two organizations to establish long-term initiatives to support refugees and displaced personsi forcibly harnessing the transformative power of football to assist and defend their rights and strengthen their integration into host communities.
“It doesn’t matter where in the world I go for UNHCR, refugee camps, settlements, towns and cities, I see how football has the extraordinary ability to unite people around a common passion. Through our partnership with UEFA, we hope to use the power of football to connect displaced people and their host communities, “he said. Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
“Sport offers the opportunity to include refugee children and young people and it also has the transformative power to rebuild lives and inspire positive values, “he added. For UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin, the cooperation protocol “is an effective way to further strengthen football. as a powerful tool to promote the sustainable social inclusion of refugees and strengthen social cohesion.
The partnership with UNHCR builds on UEFA’s already extensive work in this area, including through initiatives and programs of the UEFA Foundation for Children. Above all, our joint activities will have a real impact on the daily lives of refugees and other forcibly displaced people. ”
UEFA’s director of ‘Football & Social Responsability’, Michele Uva, hadded that “the institutional partnership with UNHCR underscores UEFA’s commitment to the new pillar of added responsibility of the UEFA strategy and its specific refugee support and inclusion policies, which reflect our responsibility to ensure the support of the European football to these important issues for civil society “.
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