Sports Cooperation

Published in Jan 12, 2015 06:14 PM Updated in Aug 17, 2021 06:32 PM

By creating ties with other nations and contributing to the promotion of Brazil's image, sport became an important instrument of diplomacy in the 21st Century

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs employs sports diplomacy as a tool to strengthen bilateral relations and to attract and hold sporting mega events in Brazil. In addition, sports diplomacy is essential to promote the services of Brazilian sports professionals abroad and to export products of the Brazilian sports material industry. Created in 2008, the General Coordination for Tourism and Sports is the section at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs responsible for these themes.

Brazil experienced a “Decade of Sports”, during which it hosted the Military World Games (2011), the Confederations Cup (2013), the World Cup (2014), the World Indigenous Games (2015), the Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games (2016) and the Copa America (2019).

The fact that all these sporting mega events were held in Brazil is an evidence of the country's growing importance in the international community. It is no accident that, in recent years, all BRICS countries have hosted or were chosen to host sporting mega events (Beijing 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games, 2010 World Cup South Africa, Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games, Sochi 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, and 2018 World Cup Russia). In February 2022, the Chinese capital will host the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Sporting mega events represent opportunities for development and social inclusion, in addition to contributing to the fight against racial, ethnic and gender discrimination. They are also instruments for the promotion of peace and cooperation, making use of and strengthening the Brazilian soft power. Brazil has already signed sports cooperation memorandums with more than 70 countries, and the demand for this type of agreement has increased. The theme has also been increasingly present at the multilateral level, and, given Brazil’s visibility as the host country of the world’s major sporting events, the role of the Brazilian diplomacy in these forums have intensified.

Within the United Nations scope, Brazil has co-sponsored General Assembly resolutions for the "Olympic Truce" (A/RES/66/5 and A/RES/68/9) and the resolution for the creation of the "International Day of Sport for Development and Peace" (A/RES/67/77). In 2010, Brazil sponsored resolution A/RES/65/4 on “Sport as a means to promote education, health, development and peace".

In the Human Rights Council, the Brazilian Government worked towards approving the resolutions on the “Promotion of the Declaration of Human Rights through Sport and the Olympic ideal” (Resolutions 24/1 and 18/23), holding high-level panels on "Racism and Sport" (October 2013) and on "Promoting Human Rights through Sport and the Olympic Ideal" (February 2012 and 2013). At the opening of the 14th Paralympic Games in London, the Governments of Brazil, the United Kingdom, the Russian Federation and the Republic of Korea issued a joint statement linking the Games with the promotion of human rights.

Within the scope of the Organization of American States (OAS), in 2016 Brazil was the proponent, with co-sponsorship from Argentina, of the declaration adopted in plenary “Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games for the Celebration of Peace and Promotion of Development through Sport” (AG/DEC.87) (XLVI-O/16) http://www.oas.org/en/council/AG/ResDec/.