Media Advisory No.2002-18

UNESCO SPONSORS YOUTH TENNIS TOURNAMENT

Paris, June 5 - The Fila Cup - Open des Jeunes Stade Français - Paris 2002 tournament, which will bring together some 300 12 to 14-year-old tennis players from about 50 countries, will be held under the auspices of UNESCO from July 4 to 14. The Organization will put on a range of educational and cultural activities, as well as games, transforming this high-level sporting meeting into a major inter-cultural event.

In a space at the centre of the tournament site's "Rainbow Village", UNESCO will present participants and spectators with a range of films, videos, publications and exhibitions highlighting the co-operation among its 188 Member States to place education, culture, science and communication at the service of development.

Workshops on culture and heritage, AIDS prevention education and a culture of peace will also be held. In a "Smart Surf in Garros" internet corner, teenagers will be able to surf UNESCO's website to explore the subjects of the workshops.

Throughout the tournament, UNESCO will be running a game, a kind of journey of initiation to the essential values that make a champion such as respect, tolerance, dialogue, and solidarity.

For the past 13 years the Tennis Section of the Stade Français has been organizing an international youth tournament after the celebrated Roland Garros International Tournament. This year it invited UNESCO to become associated to the event.

The Organization's Deputy Director-General, Marcio Barbosa, expressed the hope that the 13th tournament will thus become a "true championship of the mind," recalling the celebrated phrase of UNESCO's constitution: "since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed."

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