Confederation of African Football (CAF) participated in the high-level virtual international expert group meeting on sport for preventing and countering violent extremism (PCVE) conducive terrorism, that took place from 21 – 23 September 2020.
The meeting was held within the framework of the United Nations global program on security of major sports events, and promotion of sports and its values as a tool to prevent violent extremism.
CAF was represented by Head of Safety and Security Department, Dr. Christian Emeruwa as a panelist of the Sport and PCVE: the engagement of sport bodies and federations.
CAF congratulated the United Nations on adopting this initiative, saying they are looking forward to using of football to recruit more sports towards achieving this target.
CAF representative Dr. Emeruwa suggested that international sport bodies should play a role in using their respective sports as a tool to prevent violent extremism. He advocated for an integrated and collaborative approach whereby sport bodies will be able to come with dedicated programmes targeted towards preventing violent extremism.
The meeting was considered as the first step in the preparation of the guidelines to be adopted by the United Nations to assist member nations on what to do and how to do them.
The meeting was attended by representatives and senior experts from Civil society organizations working on sport and/or PCVE, including youth-led organizations, the United Nations, international and regional organizations, sport federations, sport foundations, private sector, academia, Member States, local and regional governments, Networks, Platforms and Associations in addition to media representatives.
Topics discussed included among others the role of athletes in promoting dialogue and preventing violent extremism, youth engagement in Sport and PCVE programmes, and the engagement of sport bodies and federations in Sports and PCVE. Credit: CAF
