sports

Kaede Maegawa is competing for Japan at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
Kaede Maegawa

Tokyo Paralympics: leaping towards a more inclusive society

28 August 2021
SDGs

Innovators are joining Paralympians to discuss how sport can help to build a more inclusive society in a series of online discussions organized by the UN to coincide with the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, which continues until 5 September.

A crowd watching a football game inside Wembley Stadium in England. (September 2016)
Unsplash/Mitch Rosen

WHO backs football body FIFA’s #ReachOut campaign for mental health

2 August 2021
Health

The world football body, FIFA, launched a UN-backed campaign on Monday designed to raise awareness of potentially damaging mental health issues, and encourage people everywhere to seek help when they need it.

South Sudanese refugee, Yiech Pur Biel, runs the 800-metres for the Refugee Olympic Team in Rio. (August 2016)
© UNHCR/Benjamin Loyseau

Olympic athletes describe the power of sport to change the world

31 July 2021
Humanitarian Aid

Leading athletes, influencers and innovators have been sharing their thoughts on the role that sport can play in building a better world for all, in UN-led online discussions held to coincide with the Tokyo Olympics.

Football for reconciliation, an event held between people involved the Colombian peace process.
UNVMC/Jennifer Moreno

Guterres highlights power of sport for inclusive, sustainable future

6 April 2021
SDGs

The United Nations Secretary-General on Tuesday urged everyone involved in the sport sector to help advance climate action, combat discrimination and prejudice, and ensure that global sporting events leave a positive legacy. 

South Sudan Under-23 A and B football teams battled it out in a fierce competition for supremacy while also sharing messages of peace and unity with fans during a match in the capital, Juba, in 2019 (file photo).
UNMISS/Flickr

UN and partners promote sport as a tool to prevent violent extremism

18 September 2020
Peace and Security

Ambassadors, senior UN officials, representatives of global sports organizations, and managers of some of the world’s top athletes met virtually on Friday to underline the role that sport can play in combating violent extremism and radicalization. 

Teenage girls play chess at school in Sana'a, Yemen.
© UNICEF/Moohialdin Fuad

First-ever World Chess Day, helps calm nerves during COVID-19 pandemic

20 July 2020
Culture and Education

With the COVID-19 pandemic leading to a pause for most sport worldwide, the UN has been celebrating a highly-competitive game that you can play safely indoors or online – with the added bonus of helping reduce anxiety, and improving mental health: Monday marks the first ever World Chess Day.

Nov. 21, 2019, Harlem Globaltrotter made its debut at the UN.
DGC Visitor Center

Legendary Harlem Globetrotters slam-dunk at the UN, with message that brings families, nations together

22 November 2019
SDGs

You don’t have to be from New York or even the United States to be a Harlem Globetrotter. Yet in the team's 93-year history, less than two dozen players have been born overseas, UN News learned, during an impromptu visit by the legendary basketball role models to UN Headquarters this week.

Peruvian and Venezuelan children have fun during the launch of “The Ball Has No Flags”. (August 2019)
IOM Peru/Karla Cervantes

Football is ‘refuge for those who have left everything’; UN initiative aims to bolster well-being of refugee, migrant children in Peru

27 August 2019
Migrants and Refugees

Sport brings people together “regardless of conditions or flags”, a senior United Nations official in Perú said on Tuesday referring to a new initiative launched over this past weekend to promote the well-being of children and youth in Lima’s refugee and migrant communities through football. 

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development acknowledges the importance of sports for social progress as well as an important enabler of sustainable development.
UNIC Tokyo/Takashi Okano

Weeding corruption out of sport an investment in development: UN crime-fighting agency

5 June 2018
Law and Crime Prevention

Sports scandals, including allegations of endemic corruption and the involvement of organized crime, threaten to undermine the sector’s potential to contribute to peace and global development, a senior United Nations official said on Tuesday

A girl passes a ball during a drill at basketball training session in Mogadishu, Somalia in 2013. Banned under the extremist group Al Shabaab, basketball is once again making a resurgence in Mogadishu.
UN Photo/Tobin Jones

With fair play, tolerance and team spirit, sport can score for peace and development, say UN officials

9 April 2018
SDGs

The United Nations can make its voice heard on the power of sport in promoting both peace and development, a senior UN official said Monday, urging participants at a special Headquarters event to “bring out our inner sports fans,” and harness sport as a force for positive change.