Cooperation With UNOCT, Ministry Of Youth And Sports Synergizes Sports As A Diplomacy Tool To Prevent Extremism

The Ministry of Youth and Sports's collaboration with UNOCT (doc. Kemenpora).

The United Nations of Counter Terrorism (UNOCT) in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth and Sports (Kemenpora) held a sports seminar entitled Harnessing the Power of Sport and its Values to Strengthen Social Cohesion and Impact on Community Resilience.

Held at the Discovery Kartika Plaza Hotel, Badung, Bali, on Thursday, October 3, 2024, this event became a moment of building synergies to make sports a means of diplomacy to prevent extremism.

Lasting for three days, this event also involved many speakers ranging from FIFA, UEFA, AFC, PSSI, Premier League, Kemenpora, United Nations, academics from SKGS UI, International Olympic Committee (IOC), FIGC, several foreign and domestic NGOs, to BNPT (National Counterterrorism Agency).

From the meeting, it resulted in many recommendations, including the need to increase the content of the sports curriculum as a medium to build social cohesion in schools.

In addition, there is also collaboration between ministries/agencies and universities with sports industry players in terms of safeguarding and planting social values.

Meanwhile, in this collaboration, collaboration between event organizers and security forces is also launched in sports initiatives and stops racism around the world.

Another recommendation given birth is a recommendation to stop hate speech, which can outweigh terrorism and extremism.

The grand design of security no longer talks about security and safety alone, but also comfort.

Some of the recommendations that were present were also in the form of measuring instruments that already existed in Europe. For example, the integrity application that has been implemented by UEFA and in the future can be a reference for PSSI.

Menpora Dito Ariotedjo, who was also present at this event, also hoped that there would be a concrete follow-up to the collaboration between the Government of Indonesia and UNOCT after this international sporting seminar event.

"We have spoken to UNOCT, especially Global Sports, to immediately open an office in Indonesia. Because in the future, Indonesia will have greater sports."

"I am sure that the next government will be enthusiastic about looking for world-class events, especially the Olympics," said Dito Ariotedjo in his statement in a release Friday, October 4, 2024.

"So the presence, collaboration, UN, UNOCT, Global Sports, together with the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will increase the value of Indonesia, the world is increasingly trusted, and how will we prepare grassroots, the community, to welcome world events in the future," he said.

Valerio de Divitiis as the UNOCT Global Sports Program Coordinator Program also explained that major sporting events are often an attractive target for extremism.

That's because they are able to invite a very large crowd, therefore good crowd management is very important in reducing risks.

"Effective crowd management requires adaptive planning and actions that reduce the need for crowd control, which is usually enforced by police authorities or personal security and can affect the atmosphere of calm and pleasant sporting events," said Valerio de Divitiis.

Valerio de Divitiis also emphasized the importance of distinguishing between crowd management, which is a planning process for security, and crowd control which is a reactive measure.

Ratu Thasha Destria, Deputy General Chairperson of PSSI, in the closing session stated that it was time for sports, especially football, to have a big impact on the community.

"For the past three days, we are talking about the impact on social cohesion, prevention of violence, child protection, and in the future it can contribute to building tough Indonesian youth."

"It's time for us to synergize in the future, as shown in the past three days," said Ratu Tisha.