At the launch event of the new project "Sport For All: Promoting Inclusion and Combating Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities", the Council of Europe (CoE) and the European Union (EU) emphasised the need to recognise "ability over disability" and break barriers to the participation of persons with disabilities in sport.
The event brought together representatives from 41 member states of the Council of Europe's Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS) and 30 sports organisations. It was opened by Gianluca Esposito, Director General of Human Rights and Rule of Law at the Council of Europe, Normunds Popēns, Deputy Director-General of DG Education, Youth, Sport and Culture at the European Commission, Alexandre Husting, Chair of the EPAS Governing Board and Charlotte Girard-Fabre, Chair of the EPAS Consultative Committee.
"Inclusion through sport is about recognising ability over disability. It is about creating a world where everyone can play, everyone can compete, and everyone can belong," said Gianluca Esposito in his opening remarks.
The Sport For All project (March 2025 - August 2026) aims at addressing disproportional discrimination, exclusion, and limited access to sports due to social and systemic obstacles that people with physical, sensory, intellectual, and psychosocial disabilities face. Other barriers include discrimination online, including hate speech and cyberbullying, which further discourage their participation.
To meet these challenges, high-level athletes Zakia Khudadadi, Arnaud Assoumani, Gizem Girişmen and Yaroslav Denysenko shared their experiences and speakers debated the empowerment of sports organisations from grassroots to elite levels and best practice examples at international level.
"Giving athletes a voice in international fora is essential to shaping inclusive policies. As the first medalist of the Refugee Paralympic Team, I see it as my duty to speak on behalf of Afghan women, refugees, and persons with disabilities - to champion inclusion and remind the world that sport can be a powerful driver of dignity, equality, and hope" said Zakia Khudadadi, Paralympic medalist, Champion for Peace.
For Arnaud Assoumani, a French athlete specialising in long and triple jump, and a Paralympic and World Champion, "Sport is the best tool - together with education and culture - to change the life of vulnerable people in the long term, regardless of if we call them disabled or not. So why not stop dehumanising right now, change the paradigm and start focusing on the abilities, the things we have in common and the issues that need to be fixed."
Prior to the conference, participants took part in a training session of blind football on the lawn of the Council of Europe.
