Prof. Dr. Zubaidullo Ubaidulloev

Prof. Dr. Zubaidullo Ubaidulloev is member of UNESCO ICM's Special Advisory Group and the Working Group on Action 3 of the UNESCO Kazan Action Plan.  He is  active in the Olympic Movement and Sport World and contributes to various international sport-related events as a speaker and is an expert in Sport and International Relations, Sport and Peace, Sport and Politics, etc. 

The United Nations (UN) has recognized the role and power of sport to promote peace and development in the world. The United Nations General Assembly at its sixty-seventh session on 23 August 2013 declared 6 April as the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace (IDSDP) and invited its member states and international community “to cooperate, observe and raise awareness of the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace.” [1] Considering the fact that the first modern Olympic Games were held on 6-15 April 1896 in Athens, Greece, its first opening day 6 April was chosen and approved by the UN General Assembly as the new International Day of Sport for Development and Peace (IDSDP).

IDSDP became an annual celebration of the positive and unique power of sport to promote and foster international cooperation and peace, dialogue, understanding and reconciliation, and to bring the social and individual development. Every year on 6 April the large and significant communities, such as the United Nations (UN) network, International Olympic Committee (IOC) and its 206 affiliated National Olympic Committees (NOCs), the Sport World and Olympic Movement unite and celebrate this significant date together.  

International days such as the IDSDP recognized and declared by the United Nations are significant occasions first of all to serve as an educational initiative to teach and raise awareness on the specific issues. These UN declared international days can help the member states to be interested and involved in addressing the issues of concern and provide active support.

The UN agencies such as UNESCO, UNHCR, UNICEF and others closely cooperate with the Olympic Movement, especially with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and its partners for decades to promote and foster peace and development through sport in the world.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognizes sport “as a vital medium for Peace and Development”. [2] Since 1952 UNESCO is active in promoting “the power and cross-cutting potential of physical education and sport.” [3] UNESCO’s General Conference in its twentieth session in Paris on 21stNovember 1978 adopted the International Charter of Physical Education and Sport, which stressed “the importance for peace and friendship among peoples of co-operation between the international governmental and non-governmental organizations responsible for physical education and sport.” [4] It was UNESCO’s significant and clear recognition of the role of sport for peace, friendship, and cooperation. And recently UNESCO moved ahead with this important document and the revised International Charter of Physical Education, Physical Activity and Sport was adopted during the 38th Session of the UNESCO General Conference in November 2015. With this revised charter UNESCO recognized and introduced the values as “gender equality, non-discrimination and social inclusion in and through sport”. [5] As these values are introduced in the revised charter, we hope that the UNESCO member states, international, sport and martial arts community will positively respond to it and become more active and involved in having the societies, where these universal values are respected and followed in the field of sport itself and also through sport in the society. UNESCO through this revised charter further strengthened its commitment to the Sport for Development and Peace movement.   

UNESCO through its peace and sport activities aims to convince various different stakeholders, such as governmental, non-governmental and international organizations that sport is a language of peace. In addition, UNESCO makes efforts in raising awareness among the sport-related important organizations, such as international sport federations (IFs), national sport federations (NFs), National Olympic Committees (NOCs), and other sport organizations. For instance, UNESCO has a cooperation with Peace and Sport (Monaco) to promote research, monitoring and evaluation in the field of Sport for Development and Peace. Moreover, UNESCO is a founding member of the Sport for Development Coalition established by the Agence Française de Développent (AFD) together with other development organizations, such as the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), West African Development Bank, Association of National and Development Finance Institutions of the member countries of the Islamic Development Bank (ADFIMI), Latin American Association of Development Finance Institutions and others.  

With the arrival of COVID-19 pandemic, which truly became global, our world faced an unprecedented crisis. This global pandemic affected and changed our life and made a negative impact on many sectors, including the Sport World and Olympic Movement. Many sport facilities, including the training halls, swimming pools, fitness centers, stadiums, gyms, etc are still closed to contain the spread of this pandemic, as the health, safety and well-being of everyone is the most important. Moreover, many international, regional, continental and other types of the sport and martial arts competitions were cancelled or postponed. Even the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games were postponed for one year. The world, especially the world of sport has faced a huge and serious challenges, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been and still continues to be a difficult and challenging period for the Sport World, Martial Arts Community and Olympic Movement.

Sport, martial arts, health related fitness and other forms of physical activity have proven that they are important, necessary and key to improve our physical and mental health. In these times of uncertainty, social distancing, lockdowns, limited movement, work and travel to contain the spread of this pandemic, the sport world and martial arts community can make a significant contribution to the active and healthy society.

International Day of Sport for Development and Peace 2021 will be celebrated during still such a difficult and uncertain period, when the world is still struggling with this COVID-19 pandemic. International Day of Sport for Development and Peace is well described by Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director-General as “an opportunity to raise the banner for the power of sport for development and peace.” [6] It is highly recommended that the Martial Arts Community in the world join the Sport World, Olympic Movement and the UN community under this banner and make their contribution more proactively with new funding opportunities and various projects.