Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) – Recognizing the value of sports in advancing peace and development, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Regional Office for Central Asia launched a new video campaign: ‘I Choose Sport’. 

Developed together with governmental partners, the campaign is centred around four motivational videos which aim to highlight the role of sport in building youth resilience towards drugs, crime and violence.  Featuring national Olympic champions as positive role models, the videos will be broadcast across the country on all national, public channels in Russian and Uzbek languages, with an estimated target audience of over 10 million people in Uzbekistan after today’s official launch.

The videos have been developed as part of the Youth Crime Prevention through Sports initiative, a component of the UNODC Global Programme on the Implementation of the Doha Declaration. The Declaration, adopted at the United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Qatar in 2015, emphasized the need to prevent crime and involve youth in such prevention efforts. With this objective in mind, the Youth Crime Prevention through Sports initiative developed a flagship programme, “Хаётга Кушил! (Line Up, Live Up), which consists of a sport-based, life-skills training curriculum for youth aged 13-18 years old. The programme strengthens youth resilience to crime, violence and drug use by developing their personal and social skills, addressing normative beliefs and attitudes and increasing knowledge of the risks associated with these phenomena. In Uzbekistan, Line Up Live Up was first piloted in 2019 in partnership with the Ministry of Public Education, training over 37 physical education teachers and trainers, and reaching over 600 school students. Building on the good results from the pilot phase, the programme was then accredited and officially registered by the Ministry of Public Education as a school-based programme, and implementation continues today in small groups, following Covid-19 related measures, in schools across Tashkent and Fergana Valley, engaging 47 new trainers and 400 youth.  

Awareness-raising activities, such as the present video campaign, are an important element of the initiative which help to convey the potential of sport as a tool for peace, learning and resilience to difficult life situations, including the threats of crime, violence and drug use. Each of the four videos developed highlights a different aspect of how sports can prevent antisocial behaviour and help young people set goals, achieve them and lead a healthy lifestyle. 

The first video, ‘Athlete’, covers the life of two young people: one is running away from the police, the second one is an athlete running in a sports setting. While both young people perform the same physical actions, the results vary greatly: the first gets stuck at the end after facing an insurmountable barrier, while the young athlete overcomes all obstacles in the sports race. The message is clear: sport helps develop resilience to adversities in life. Video number two, ‘Before a life choice’, explores a decision that a young man faces in his life and, influenced by the examples set by national sports champions who show the positive role sport played in their lives, how his choice leads him on the right path. The third video delves into the role of sport in the life of Shakhnoza Mirzaeva, world para-canoe champion who is qualified to participate in the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo 2020. ‘Hockey player’ is the final video in the series and shows the role of sport in building resilience to crime and in strengthening self-awareness and the ability to resist negative peer pressure.

The launch event, held on 14 December, brought together the Ministry of Public Education, the Ministry of Physical Culture and Sports, the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Agency for Youth Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and the UNODC Regional Office for Central Asia.

During the event, participants discussed joint work on youth crime prevention in Uzbekistan and expressed gratitude for the opportunity to implement the UNODC Youth Crime Prevention through Sport initiative.

“Building youth life skills is key to minimizing risk factors and strengthening protective factors associated with crime, violence and drug use,” noted Mr. Koen Marquering, UNODC Criminal Justice Programme Coordinator in Central Asia. “Sport offers a rewarding alternative to engaging in delinquent behaviour: it teaches teamwork, solidarity and fair play; it can provide a sense of belonging and an outlet for emotions; and it may also lead to positive changes in gender relations by encouraging collaboration and understanding among participants of different genders," he added.

Speaking on the work conducted so far between UNODC ROCA and the Government around sport, Mr. Dilshod Kenzhaev, Deputy Minister of Public Education in the Republic of Uzbekistan, flagged the importance of the new outreach series. “Together with UNODC, we are now implementing the Youth Crime Prevention through Sports initiative for the second year. The motivational videos that we are presenting today aim to help young people not stumble in their paths and prevent engagement in criminal activities”. 

The Deputy Head of the Academy of the Prosecutor General's Office of Uzbekistan, Mr. Uygun Nigmajanov, meanwhile spoke of the ongoing work conducted as part of the Doha Declaration Global Programme. “The Academy of the General Prosecutor’s office supports such important UNODC initiatives such as the “Line Up Live Up” and the Education for Justice initiative , and I am glad that through these tools we are all moving towards important universal values, such as mutual respect and respect for others, for peace, for good, for justice ”. 

Mr. Farrukh Omonov, Deputy Director of the Youth Affairs Agency, expressed his hope that the videos will increase the interest of Uzbek youth in sports, and also expressed his readiness to promote the videos through the Agency’s communication channels and networks.” The goals of the "Line Up Live Up " programme correspond to the main priority initiatives of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan to promote sports and healthy life-styles among the population, especially young people. “It is an excellent crime prevention programme, it teaches cooperation and respect; young people also understand the importance of life skills that they acquire through the trainings”, stated Mr. Otabek Eshmamatov, Press Secretary of  the Ministry of Physical Culture and Sports of the Republic of Uzbekistan. 

UNODC thanks all partners for their cooperation in the production of the motivational videos and acknowledges in particular the support from the Olympic Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan that facilitated the participation of athletes who serve as role models for young people. These are: Khaidarov Marat - athletics champion of the Asian Games; Iroda Tulyagangova - bronze tennis World champion among girls; Ruslan Nurudinov - weightlifting Olympic champion; Khasanboy Dusmatov - boxing Olympic champion; Oksana Chusovitina –  gymnastics Olympic champion, threefold World Champion; Radzvil Svetlana - high jump champion of the Asian Games; Shakhnoza Mirzaeva - Paralympic canoe champion and qualification for World champion.