Leading partners in the fight against doping in sport, UNESCO and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) are working together, at the international level, to combat this plague, which harms athletes, destroys fair play and equitable competition and does irreparable damage to the credibility of sport.

Given its mandate on education, and its commitment to the fundamental values which underpin physical education and sport, UNESCO is deeply concerned about the erosion of ethics and the gross inequity created by the use of performance enhancing drugs by athletes. Since its creation, UNESCO has stood on the principles of equality and justice and has been the nations’ instrument to set up the ethical limits of scientific and technical progress.

As the first United Nations agency with an institutional mandate and historic competency in the field sport, UNESCO facilitated the development of the first truly global anti-doping legal instrument (the International Convention against Doping in Sport) and has, since then, been actively promoting its implementation, by supporting governments in the development of national anti-doping programmes.

Believing that it is essential to sensitize the next generation of athletes to truly remove doping from sport in the long term, UNESCO also contributes to the development of anti-doping education and prevention programmes aiming at promoting sport values and informing young people on the moral, legal and health consequences of doping.

As part of this strategy, UNESCO established in 2008 the Fund for the Elimination of Doping in Sport, which is made of voluntary financial contributions from Member States.

WADA is actively working with the sport movement (International Olympic Committee (IOC), International Paralympic Committee (IPC), international sport federations, etc.) and anti-doping organizations so as to assure compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code, whose objective is to protect the fundamental right of athletes fundamental to take part in sport activities and to ensure the coordination of anti-doping programmes at the international and national levels for testing, deterrence and prevention of doping in all sports.

UNESCO and WADA signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2006.

More information on WADA can be found on www.wada-ama.org.