MONTE CARLO, Monaco (11 December, 2019) – World Taekwondo President, Dr. Chungwon Choue is at the centre of the important discussions at the Peace and Sport Forum 2019 in Monte-Carlo, Monaco, where "putting respect for human rights at the heart of sport" was the key focus on day one.
The theme of 12th edition of the Peace and Sport Forum is "Investing in Peace, Acting through Sport", with an aim to identify and share solutions to scale-up investment in longer-term efforts, transforming societies and leaving a sustainable legacy for generations to come.
Dr. Choue joined a panel of esteemed guests at the One Monte-Carlo Conference Centre on the opening day, addressing over 600 key decision-makers on one of the most pressing topics in sports. Dr. Choue’s expertise in this area demonstrated how World Taekwondo is one of the leading International Federations in the development of peace through sport.
President Choue also spoke about the World Taekwondo Cares Programme, which has introduced programmes to help get children off the streets into schools and taekwondo clubs in Sri Lanka. Furthermore, the Cares Programme has also worked on strengthening gender empowerment in Nepal and collaborated with the Cambodian government to educate and campaign against sexual violence.
Additionally, Dr. Choue, who is also Chairman of the Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation (THF) which he foudned, spoke about the THF Humanitarian Taekwondo Centres that were built for young people in the Azraq refugee camp in Jordan. Taekwondo is taught to hundreds of refugees in the Azraq camp and there are currently 9 black belt holders.
Seven taekwondo athletes are being assisted by Olympic Solidarity through its Refugee Athletes Support Programme, including one athlete from the Azraq refugee camp. World Taekwondo has the second highest number of athletes on the programme.
Following panel discussions, Dr. Choue said:
"World Taekwondo launched the THF, under the guidance of the United Nations (UN), to empower refugees and displaced persons worldwide by training them in the sport and martial art of taekwondo.
"As of today, we have signed MoUs with five Olympic IFs: Wrestling, Judo, Badminton, Table Tennis, and Hockey. We also signed with two non-Olympic IFs: Muay Thai and Sambo. We expected to sign with more IFs in 2020.
"World Taekwondo is fully committed to its social responsibility and making a major contribution to social development and humanitarian causes.
"We are now looking to expand such programmes to other countries like Djibouti, Rwanda, and Colombia because we know that we can offer the gift of sport to refugees and socially underprivileged children and young adults."
Dr. Choue will attend the Forum tomorrow to discuss "sport for the global compact on refugees" as a Board Member of the Olympic Refuge Foundation.
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