State Secretary Mr. Per Kr. Skulberg

UNESCOs Third International Conference of Ministers and Senior Officials responsible for Physical Education and Sport (MINEPS III)

Punta del Este, Uruguay, December 1,1999

Mr.Chairman, Fellow Delegates,

The Government of Norway strongly supports the work of UNESCO. I had the privilege of taking part in the Ministerial Round Table in Paris earlier this month, during the General Conference of UNESCO, emphasizing the importance of the organisation’s renewed focus on culture and development and cultural diversity.

Culture has to be articulated within the frames of democracy. Sport has likewise to be performed within the frames of democracy. My Government therefore welcomes UNESCOs commitment to strengthen action to ensure that sport may become an integral part of the process of continuing education, and function as an instrument of peace, development, solidarity, respect for human rights and international understanding.

Dramatic changes of the framework and trends in sport have taken place since MINEPS I in 1976. It has for many cases not been clearly visible until the last decade. The problem is that sport itself and governments may not yet have seen these changes and the impact on ethical values and the threat these changes may represent, if they are not perceived and delt with in proper ways.

The three main changes consist of media development, new and extensive investment interest in the field of some sport branches, and finally the increasing doping problem in sport.

It is crucially important that we see the structural consequences of the introduction of big money in sport. All Member States must encourage the sport organisations of their country to redevelop structures that can secure the interests of children, young people and further enhance the important voluntary activity. Sport and physical activity are so important to the civic society that Governments must be active and secure solutions within nations. Nations must not be misled to believe that these challenges can be left to extranational bodies to be solved. I call for the assistance of UNESCO to stimulate all nations to take action within their own countries. In this process adequate actions of international organisations are vital as well. I therefore welcome the present conference as a timely one.

The voluntary work carried out in and through sport is a practical school of and for democracy. It is therefore a constant challenge to stimulate children and youth to be a part of this. To give them the possibility to do sport in a way they like and to give them a positive experience and a lifelong participation in sport.

However, we must also recognise that sport can itself contribute to some of the problems facing modern societies i.e. violence, intolerance, cheating and corruption.

One of the most serious threats in sport to day, is, from my point of view, doping.

Governments not only have a role to play if effective anti-doping programmes are to be developed. In order to secure that sport on the national level is not treated as a private phenomenon belonging to international sports organisations, and thereby left to be treated according to different standards, regulations and procedures, the Governments should protect and guide sports in their respective countries by establishing unified, quality-oriented anti-doping systems that apply to all national athletes.

Norwegian athletes are citizens of the same country. As such they are treated equally, i.e. the same general laws apply to everybody. The misuse of drugs and doping substances are part of the same complex social problem area, that cannot be treated as private problems belonging to a certain selfprotected sector of our societies.

Doping regulations fall outside of the competition rules and regulations of each sport. While competition rules and regulations are sport-specific, of the simple fact that sports have different cultural backgrounds, and express themselves physically in very different ways, no one would seriously argue that drug-taking by athletes should be considered as sport-specific activities, and as a consequence be under the jurisdiction of a wide variety of international sports federations.

The Norwegian Government has politically and financially supported the unified solution adopted by the Norwegian Confederation of Sports. There has been no need for intervention as long as organised sports in Norway, through their umbrella organisation, the Confederation, have adopted and loyally adhered to common rules and regulations; sanctions included. The consequence has been that all Norwegian athletes have been treated as equal citizens of the same society. Norwegian sport has behaved according to the codes of the society of which sport is an important member and contributor.

To keep up public trust and thereby public support, and to protect athletes' rights to fair and just treatment, are of fundamental importance if modern sport is to maintain legitimacy as something more valuable than mere money-oriented entertainment and business.

From a Norwegian sport-loving outlook it has been sad and frustrating to experience the lack of real interest and responsibility among sports organisations, especially on the international level, to acknowledge the problems, and to counteract forcefully, and in time.

The preoccupation with imagery and money-making has given international sports a long way to go if value rhetoric is to be believed in the years to come.

Allow me, Mr chairman, to finish by stating that the fight against doping in sport is a fight in order to protect sport as a positive phenomenon of great influence in the lives of our citizens. Governments have a duty to intervene when international influence tends to overthrow the value priorities of national systems.

I had the privilege of underlining this also at the International Summit on Drugs in Sports two weeks ago in Sydney, Australia, and to support initiatives that secure that Governments in a new way can take action on their own national levels.

Our major responsibilities within the field of physical education and sports is to secure that all international organisations are part of the solutions and not part of the problems. In the working documents we are saying all the right things, let us therefore, Mr. Chairman, secure the doing of the right things as a follow-up of this conference in the field of physical education and sport.