[Dream Together Seoul Forum 2018 highlight video clip.]
The world’s leading sport conference—the Dream Together Seoul Forum—met November 1st at Westin Chosun Seoul, Korea for its sixth annual get-together. The Forum’s main theme was “Sport for Peace.”
The forum was attended by more than 300 participants, officials from Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Korea Sports Promotion Foundation and prominent speakers including HRH Prince Feisal Al-Hussein, IOC Member of Jordan & Founder of Generations For Peace, Mike Cronin, Academic Director of Centre for Irish Programmes at Boston College Ireland, Beatriz Mejia, Executive Director and Founder of International Group for Peace, Manfred Laemmer, Professor of German Sport University Cologne, Young-il Na, Professor at Seoul National University, Ramona Mohd Razali, Deputy Secretary General(Strategic Affairs) of Ministry of Youth and Sports Malaysia, Norkamarul Norzam, Special Officer to the Secretary General, Ministry of Youth and Sports Malaysia (DTM 3rd batch graduate).
Speaking at the forum, the keynote speaker HRH Prince Feisal Al-Hussein put emphasis on the power of sport which inspires and influences millions of people around the globe. “Sport has a unique power to build profound and lasting unity. Sport inspires dreams and empowers the world to achieve them. Sport is a powerful contributor to conflict transformation, peacebuilding and development efforts,” he said.
Prof. Mike Cronin and Ms. Beatriz Mejia presented about the role of sport in contribution to resolve the conflict in Northern Ireland and Colombia. They both emphasized that sport has a power to bring people together across boundaries and establish bridges between groups in conflict.
Prof. Manfred Lammer and Prof. Young-il Na introduced historical background of division of Germany and Korea and how sport brought peace to these countries and created political and social changes.
Officials from the Ministry of Youth and Sports in Malaysia, Ms. Ramona Mohd Razali and Mr. Norkamarul Norzam mentioned that sport has been used as a tool that integrates multiethnic, multicultural and multilingual Malaysian society into one and fosters social inclusion. They stressed that the initiative operated by the government and national sport federation has encouraged interaction between different races and it should be accompanied by appropriate education and compulsory multicultural policies.
The Dream Together Seoul Forum is part of the Dream Together Master, a Korean government’s national goodwill project for global sport development and is operated by Seoul National University. The forum is held annually since 2013 to provide an international platform to address various topics or rising issues in the field of sport.
Director of Dream Together Master Prof. Joon-ho Kang said the forum had played an important role in discussing peace promotion and reconciliation initiative among a number of countries with violent conflicts. “As a universal language, sport can be a powerful tool to promote peace and tolerance. I hope this year’s forum would serve as a platform to connect, share knowledge and experience, and build global partnerships that support the efforts of peacekeeping and peace-building work.” Kang said.
