Director General/Executive Director
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Sports inspire. They drive us to excellence, help us work together and teach us fair play.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development highlights sport as a tool for peace in its promotion of tolerance and respect.
Sports activities present an opportunity to empower young people, and help them to live safely and be healthy.
The Doha Declaration, adopted at the 13th Crime Congress, recognizes young people as agents for change in crime prevention efforts.
As part of our Global Programme to support implementation of the Doha Declaration, UNODC has launched an evidence-based initiative building on the power of sports to prevent youth crime and drug use.
"Line Up Live Up" is a training curriculum we are developing to build the resilience of at-risk youth by drawing on sports as a vehicle to reduce anti-social behaviour and teach valuable life skills.
The curriculum is currently being tested in Brazil, and will then be piloted and rolled out in other countries in the region, as well as in Southern Africa, West Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East and North Africa.
You will have an opportunity to see how the training curriculum works in practice today, here in the UN Plaza.
I thank our event partners, the FIFA Grassroots Programme and NGO Grassroots Soccer. And I welcome the First Vienna Football Club, whose young players and coaches have joined us to give a demonstration of some life-skills training exercises.
Finally, I would like to express my thanks to Major General Dr Abdullah Yusuf Al Mal and the Government of Qatar for its generous support of the Doha Declaration Global Programme.
Thank you, and enjoy the demonstration.