Sport is indisputably the most popular leisure activity in the world, not only for children and youth, but for men and women as players, coaches, leaders, administrators and spectators. And even though the intrinsic values and inherent qualities in sport and play lie entirely in how the participation in the activity is experienced and perceived, play is a natural part of people's physical, mental and social development and growth.

The popularity of sport and games among children and youth and the widespread acceptance of sport and games from the parents side, make sport a low entry point for social change. Projects can be labeled as leisure activities and bring about a change of attitudes and behavior. It all depends on how you play. This is the reason why appropriate training of coaches is so crucial.

Sport can be a low entry point for persons who are skeptical about peace and social cohesion. "Just play for fun!" helps to integrate persons who would never ever participate in activities labeled "sport for peace with e.g. Kurds, Tamils, Serbs or Hutus". Sport and games allow therefore to work with the critical voices or even with persons who are against intercultural dialogue and nonviolent conflict transformation.

Sport and games integrates an important part of the human being, which often gets forgotten in peace building: the body and its emotions. Sustainable conflict transformation means that you address also the participant's feelings. Sport and games offer the space for joy, fun, creativity and happiness, but also for rage, sadness and frustration. The latter emotions can be worked on by the coach (if necessary) and be transformed.

The power comes with its popularity, and the effect and impact comes with its implementation.

Focusing on conflicting parties' mutual interest rather than using the problems as starting points for intervention, sport activities can create safe spaces for interaction where communication can be restored and understanding and tolerance can be built provided we have acquired the adequate knowledge of the situation.

Some guiding principles working with sport and peace building are:

• Understand the conflict and the culture where the conflict takes place

• Base the activities on commonalities and mutual interests/identity

• Base the activities on local premises, situation and resources

• Use of Peer educators to ensure openness and interaction rather than teachers-student and a top-down approach

• Be conscious of the distribution of services across conflicting lines. A one sided support might spawn conflict rather than reduce it.

• Know how to handle immediate conflicts within the group

• Know how to handle differences in groups and how to perceive them as an asset

• Observe; Look, listen and learn