Today, the Champions for Peace digitally launch the 2021 #WhiteCard campaign. Under the motto “Behind each #WhiteCard, there is a story”, they invite the peace-though-sport movement to join the campaign by sharing #WhiteCard pictures and testimonies on the platform www.april6.org and on social media.
In a video message, Champions for Peace Didier Drogba, Laurence Fischer, Marlène Harnois, Siya Kolisi, Jean-Baptiste Alaize, Tony Estanguet, Pascal Gentil, Paula Radcliffe and Sarah Ourahmoune explain what the WhiteCard means to them:
“ Behind each WhiteCard, there is a story. A story where sport fosters reconciliation and coexistence within and between communities. A story where sport contributes to building more inclusive societies and combats all forms of discrimination. A story where sport contributes to fighting against gender stereotypes and gender-based violence. A story where sport breaks traditional barriers and encourages intercultural and interreligious understanding. A story where sport connects, inspires and empowers girls and boys. A story where sport, as a universal language, prevents interpersonal violence and achieves peace goals. As Champions for Peace, we believe that sport has the power to change lives and to shape peaceful societies.”
On this occasion, Joël Bouzou, Peace and Sport President and Founder declared:
“Today more than ever sport can inspire, give courage and hope as it is a powerful tool to reinforce fraternity and cooperation. In the present crisis, the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace celebrated on April 6th, is a propitious day to send a strong message of global solidarity and reinforce our bonds with each other in an indissoluble way through sport.”
Each year, to celebrate the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace, Peace and Sport invites the entire world to show support to the peace-through-sport movement through the white card symbol. This year, with the theme “Behind every #WhiteCard, there is a story” Peace and Sport wants to highlight the testimonies of people who have personally or collectively measured the positive impact of a peace-through-sport project.
Through testimonies, pictures, and memories of resilience, Peace and Sport wishes to demonstrate that sport is a formidable tool to fight against discrimination, as well as a means of fostering the transmission of structuring values and illuminating the path to more inclusive and peaceful societies.
About the #WhiteCard campaign
The #WhiteCard is a worldwide digital campaign created by Peace and Sport that promotes the positive and constructive values of sport. Every year the #WhiteCard campaign reaches millions of people through social media. Holding up a #WhiteCard, just like a referee, has been recognized as the symbol of the peace-through-sport movement and it is an action that symbolizes the positive power of sport. In contrast to the red card, which signifies the most serious offense in sport, the #WhiteCard is a gesture of inclusion, equality and peace.
Symbolically, the #WhiteCard enables sport organizations, international institutions, governments, athletes and civil society to take action and promote themselves within the sport-for-development-and-peace movement and identify themselves as being socially aware and committed. In the context of the pandemic, the #WhiteCard became an expression of unity and solidarity through sport.
About the April6 mobilization
In order to create an even stronger international mobilization around the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace, Peace and Sport launched the platform www.april6.org, in 2014. The objective is to identify and promote all the initiatives organized around the world by international federations, NOCs, clubs, associations, institutions and private actors, but also to identify inspiring stories which are the victories of peace through sport. This platform allows everyone to download all the elements necessary to mobilize and share their story.
