Background

The number of child migrants and refugees worldwide has been increasing drastically in recent years. Sport has been recognised as a powerful tool to promote social inclusion, physical and mental health, and youth development. Therefore, ensuring that child migrants and refugees have access to sports activities is crucial for their well-being and integration into their new communities. While this is an important objective, they nevertheless often face multiple barriers to accessing sports activities.
 

Objectives

The Diversity Conference seeks to draw attention to the challenges, and the work being done throughout Europe on how sport can be used as a tool for the inclusion of child migrants and refugees. It will aim to:

• showcase best practices and initiatives undertaken by policy makers, public authorities, sports organisations, migration and inclusion specialists, non-governmental organisations and athletes themselves;
• outline the various challenges in implementing these practices; and
• work towards some key initiatives. 

One of the Conference objectives will be to lay the foundations for the preparation of a handbook to be shared with all stakeholders to better address the inclusion of child migrants and refugees through sport.
 

Speakers and target audience

The Conference will bring together stakeholders from various sectors including:

• Council of Europe and public authorities;
• representatives from the organised sport movement including the Olympic Refuge Foundation, UEFA, and other CC member organisations;
• UNICEF, UNHCR and other NGOs;
• Athletes, referees, and sports journalists;
• Stakeholders who want to learn more about how to use sport as a tool to include child migrants and refugees within their host communities.
   

Concept note