Alexander Schischlik

Role

Chief, Youth and Sport Section

Organization

UNESCO

Alexander Schischlik is Chief of the Youth and Sport Section at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the United Nations’ lead agency for sport and physical education.

Schischlik has managed the sports portfolio at UNESCO since 2012 and has worked with the organisation since 1993. In his UNESCO career, he has overseen international programmes in several fields, including music and the arts, cultural industries and human rights.

He started his career in the insurance business, based in Buenos Aires, and then moved on to manage international projects in music production and artist promotion, working in Vienna and Brussels.

Born in Austria, Schischlik holds a Master’s degree in Economics and a Doctorate in Law from the University of Vienna.

UNESCO’s International Charter of Physical Education, Physical Activity and Sport and the International Convention against Doping in Sport are landmark standards for national and international sports policy development. UNESCO’s work is guided by its Intergovernmental Committee for Physical Education and Sports (CIGEPS), with the active participation of the Olympic Movement, based on the Kazan Action Plan, which was adopted by the 6th World Sport Ministers Conference (MINEPS VI) in 2017. MINEPS VI is an overarching framework that integrates sports policy into the United Nations 2030 sustainable development goals.

The speakers

Using the unique power of sport to bring people together, the Olympism in Action Forum saw a range of global players, including Olympic Movement stakeholders, athletes, private and public sector leaders, NGO representatives, academics, artists and the media come together to talk on topical contemporary issues. Chosen because of their ability to effect change and their wide range of sometimes differing opinions, the speakers led lively debates and seeked to challenge received wisdom to inspire new ways of thinking.