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SAN JOSE, COSTA-RICA, 5 March 2010 - During an official trip to Costa Rica, Joel Bouzou, President and Founder of Peace and Sport was awarded a Diploma Honoris Causa in Humanities from the University for Peace (UPEACE).
This title was presented by John J. Maresca, Rector of UPEACE in recognition "of his unique worldwide leadership role in promoting peace and mutual understanding among different cultures, and his leadership of organizations devoted to these objectives." The ceremony took place before an audience of around one hundred officials, company directors, athletes, students, researchers and stakeholder in Costa Rican civil society.
Of French nationality, Joel Bouzou created “Peace and Sport, L’Organisation pour la Paix par le Sport” in 2007. Peace and Sport is a neutral, international organization based in Monaco and placed under the High-Patronage of H.S.H. Prince Albert II. Its mission is to promote sport and its structuring values as a tool at the service of sustainable peace throughout the world.
Currently Secretary General of the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) and himself a former pentathlete, Joel Bouzou has participated in four Olympic Games (Moscow 1980, Los Angeles 1984, Seoul 1988 and Barcelona 1992), winning the bronze in 1984. In 1987 he became World Champion of Modern Pentathlon.
A member of the World Olympians Association (WOA) Executive Committee from 2003 to 2008, Joel Bouzou also founded an association called “Champions in the Street”, which uses sport to help socially integrate young people living in the outskirts of cities in France.
Joel Bouzou is currently an advisor to H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco. He is also an Officer of the’ Ordre National du Mérite’ and a Knight of the ‘Légion d’Honneur’, one of the highest civil honours in the French Republic.
He declared: "I am deeply honoured to receive this Diploma Honoris Causa from the prestigious University for Peace. I accept this title with the utmost humility, conscious of the enormity of the task which remains to be accomplished so that sport can effectively contribute to sustainable peace in the world. I hope that the diploma that I have the immense pride to receive today will aid me in raising awareness amongst more international decision makers and opinion leaders that sport can help reduce the causes of conflict in the world, which are injustice, hatred, ignorance and prejudice.”
During his trip to Costa Rica, Joel Bouzou met the President of Costa Rica H.E. Dr. Óscar Arias Sánchez, Nobel Peace Laureate and founder of the "Ariaz Foundation for Peace and Human Progress", as well as the newly elected President, H.E. Ms. Laura Chinchilla and the Vice-president H.E. Luis Liberman ; Ministers of Youth, Sport, Foreign Affairs and of Justice and Peace ; the President of the National Olympic Committee Mr. Henry Nuñez; the President of the Costa Rica Union of Chambers and Associations of Private Enterprises; and many Olympians.
About Peace and Sport
Peace and Sport, L’Organisation pour la Paix par le Sport is a neutral and apolitical international initiative.
Peace and Sport puts sport and its structuring values at the heart of development projects led within communities in crisis around the world. With interventions in post-conflict zones, extremely poor areas or areas lacking social cohesion, Peace and Sport makes sport a vehicle for tolerance, respect, sharing and citizenship at the service of sustainable peace.
Supported by governments, world sport governing bodies, international organizations, major international companies in the private sector and international sports champions, Peace and Sport creates synergies between various different stakeholders to carry out four types of action:
· Organizing an annual International Forum (next edition in Monaco, 1-3 December 2010)
· A Resource Centre for sport and peace,
· The Peace and Sport Awards, to reward individuals and initiatives contributing to peace,
· Locally-Based Projects; concrete actions in different regions of crisis in the world.
Today, Peace and Sport has operations in Cote d'Ivoire, Burundi, Israel-Palestine, Timor Leste, Colombia and Haiti.
About the University for Peace
The University for Peace (UPEACE) was created as a Treaty Organization within the framework of the United Nations, pursuant to Resolution 35/55 of the General Assembly in December 1980 to support the central peace and security objectives of the United Nations. Its mission is to “provide humanity with an international institution of higher education for peace with the aim of promoting among all human beings a spirit of understanding, tolerance and peaceful coexistence, to stimulate cooperation among peoples and to help lessen obstacles and threats to world peace and progress”.
The headquarters of the UPEACE system is in Costa Rica, the country which initiated the process for the establishment of the University. UPEACE’s activities include: teaching, research, distance learning, and outreach. The UPEACE system also includes offices in Addis Ababa, Geneva, Manila and New York and partnership agreements with numerous other institutions worldwide. The Costa Rica campus serves as a laboratory for the UPEACE system in curriculum development and face-to-face-teaching programmes.
UPEACE currently offers nine regular MA programmes and seven special programmes and has 200 students from 60 countries. |