Over 460 million* children – more than one in six globally – lived in conflict-affected areas in 2024.
Conflict devastates lives and disrupts education, denying children access to schools and safe spaces like playgrounds.
Education is a fundamental right for children everywhere. In conflict-affected areas, it provides a sense of normalcy and stability. It is a pathway to a better future.
*Source: UNICEF
Sport for peace
As a flexible pedagogical tool, sport is a great asset for education. It transmits knowledge and skills that enhance self-confidence, promote mutual understanding, cooperation, and respect.
The United Nations’ Member States unanimously recognize sport’s exceptional capacity to contribute to education, social cohesion, violence prevention and reconciliation.
Despite this international consensus, countries worldwide invest less than 2% of their education budgets in sport. The mindsets need to change. Decision-makers must convert vision into action, because without sport, we risk losing one of our greatest avenues for peace.
Learn more on sport as a tool…
Get Mobilized
On the occasion of the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace – celebrated on April 6 – Peace and Sport calls on the international community to mobilise and raise a #WhiteCard for the 460 million children whose lives are disrupted by conflict.
A symbolic gesture highlighting the need to make sport for peace a priority. For where there is no sport there is no peace
A symbolic gesture, a powerful impact
Attitudes are changing and now, we can be friends with the children from another community of origin, not all of them yet, but it’s getting there!
Now, I can speak without fear. Before, I thought that if I spoke, it would create conflict or a problem
The children come from disadvantaged backgrounds where good manners are often neglected. Since they have been taking part in the programme, we have been teaching them respect and sharing, and this has led to a marked improvement in their behaviour
Mobilization Around the WhiteCard Campaign
Read all the news about the #whitecard campaign here.
To mark the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace, celebrated annually on April 6, Peace and Sport and Provale are announcing a groundbreaking partnership aimed at mobilizing the French professional rugby community around the global #WhiteCard campaign....
Across the world, children are growing up in environments marked by conflict, polarization, exclusion, and instability. Their access to education is disrupted. Their sense of safety is fragile. Their opportunities to develop and thrive are increasingly uneven. The...
In 2025, the message carried by our #WhiteCard campaign - making peace through sport a global priority - once again transcended borders and resonated across continents. With more than 460 million children living in conflict-affected areas, the urgency of peace...
Speak Your Peace
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