Choue

Details Cross-Sport Collaboration for Refugees

WT Pledges Commitment to Refugees at First-Ever Global Refugee Forum

World Taekwondo (WT) President Chungwon Choue, who is also chairman of the Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation (THF) and a board member of the Olympic Refuge Foundation (ORF), outlined on Dec. 12, 2019 the important role that safe sport can play in promoting social inclusion for refugees and displaced people around the world.

Choue delivered the messages during his keynote speech at the Peace and Sport International Forum. He also took part in a panel discussion during the forum entitled, “Sport for the Global Compact of Refugees” alongside Director of External Relations for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Dominique Hyde, and IOC Member Seung-min Ryu.

Choue spoke of the work of the ORF, which was launched in 2017 under the vision of IOC President Thomas Bach.

“The aspiration of the ORF is for one million forcibly displaced young people to have access to safe sport by 2024,” Choue said. “This is an ambitious goal that the Olympic movement can reach together with those who are already active in this field so that sport can be a tool to improve social inclusion for the most marginalized in our world.”

Related bodies are already aligning.

“Together with the UNHCR and the IOC, through the endorsement of the pledges, a coalition of more than 80 organizations has emerged,” Choue said. “I look forward to seeing this coalition grow further as working together in partnership we can multiply the impact of each of our individual efforts.”

In the evening, Choue joined delegates at the Peace and Sport Gala Awards 2019.

World Taekwondo (WT) united with 81 signatories across the global sports movement and pledged to support refugees through sport, during the first-ever Global Refugee Forum at the Palais Des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland on Dec. 17-18, 2019.

WT was one of only two International Federations (IFs) invited by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to the inaugural forum along with the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). Both organizations were invited in recognition of their ongoing commitment to refugees through their respective humanitarian organisations.

As a signatory of the UNHCR-IOC Sports Coalition pledge, WT representatives joined key stakeholders from governments, NGOs and the private sector at the forum. IOC President Thomas Bach addressed delegates.

Just one week prior, WT President Chungwon Choue had spoken at the Peace & Sport Forum in Monte Carlo. There, he had joined a panel of esteemed guests, such as the Director of External Relations for the UNHCR, Dominique Hyde, to discuss the topic of “Sport for the Global Compact of Refugees.”