Development of Sport for All and the creation of co-ordinating structures

Recommendation 588 (1970)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 26 January 1970 (21st Sitting) (seeDoc. 2631, report of the Committee onCulture and Education). Text adopted by theAssembly on 26 January 1970 (21stSitting).

The Assembly,

1. Noting that thetransformations of modern society and their corollaries such asindustrialisation, automation and urbanisation tend :

a to eliminate the minimum regular physical exercise essential to man'sphysical equilibrium ;

b to accentuate man's psychologicalsolitude and dependence on his environment ;

2. Considering that, in such a society, sport has to fulfil two vitalfunctions, namely :

a a biological function ofpreserving and developing the physical capacity of present and futuregenerations ;

b a socio-cultural function of helping man, inthe context of permanent education and cultural development, to triumph overcertain living and working conditions which threaten his development andbalance, by giving him means of satisfying his needs of communication,expression and creativeness ;

3. Believing thatthese considerations warrant, and indeed demand, immediate and extensivemeasures designed to place sport as a socio-cultural activity within the reachof an ever-widening range of the population, in accordance with the concept"Sport for All" defined by the Council for Cultural Co-operation ;

4. Considering moreover that by its very nature such action requires at bothnational and European level a concerted and co-ordinated effort by very diverseinstitutions : ministerial departments, local authorities, sportsorganisations, permanent educational bodies, industrial and financial circles,trade unions and other professional organisations etc. ;

5. Observingthat both on a European level and in most of the member countries thestructures that would make such concerted and co-ordinated effort possible arelacking,

6. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers invite themember governments of the Council of Europe :

a to launch or support, at national level, "Sport for All" campaignssuch as already exist in some member countries ;

b toencourage, if they do not already exist, the creation of national coordinatingstructures for that purpose ;

c to provide the Council ofEurope with co-ordinating machinery to promote "Sport for All" on a Europeanscale.