6th international conference of ministers and senior officials responsible for physical education and sport to be held in Kazan

In 2017, Kazan is about to play host to the 6th International Conference of Ministers and Senior Officials Responsible for Physical Education and Sport (MINEPS VI). This was announced today in a letter from UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova to the Ministry of Sport of the Russian Federation. The decision was made after UNESCO representatives had visited Kazan in December 2015 to inspect the city’s potential to host the upcoming conference.

“This visit confirmed that the Russian Federation, Republic of Tatarstan and the city of Kazan have both potential and eagerness to host the conference, seeing it as a further contribution to the cooperation between your nation and UNESCO for the development of physical culture and sports,” the letter reads.  

The International Conference of Ministers and Senior Officials Responsible for Physical Education and Sport (MINEPS) was first held at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris in 1976 and focused on the development of physical education and sporting, which subsequently became a priority education goal for UNESCO. The following sessions took place in Moscow (USSR) in 1988, Punta del Este (URU) in 1999 and Athens (GRE) in 2004. The latest session took place in Berlin in May, 2013. Its participants approved a long list of recommendations concerning the fight against corruption in sport, a fairer distribution of sports' positive benefits for the host country's society and economy at large, as well as provision of equal access to sports.