Bouzou created Peace and Sport, a neutral organisation which uses sport to build dialogue and foster reconciliation around the world, in 2007. Twelve years on, Bouzou says its work could not be more important.

Peace and Sport's first Champions for Peace were announced in 2009 and now 116 champions and 16 ambassadors have joined the Monaco-based organisation to spread its message.

"The champions are very special people because they are present in the media and can carry this influence," the Frenchman said.

"They are special people because they have lived in the Olympic Village and they have not only done sport, but they have met the other champions and been a part of this huge international peaceful community.

"Through the champions we can facilitate the dialogue and prepare the population to live together again.

"Sport can keep things warm and prepare people to look at themselves and at each other with a different look.

"Champions can really influence that."

A special gala evening will be held as part of the Peace and Sport Forum in December to honour its champions, at an anniversary event.

Peace and Sport has hundreds of high-profile sporting stars among its champions and ambassadors, from the organisation's vice-president, footballer Didier Drogba, to Burundi's sole Olympic champion Vénuste Niyongabo, winner of the 5,000 metres in Atlanta in 1996.

Bouzou says Niyongabo is one of the organisation's key successes.

"Vénuste left Burundi to go to Italy at 19 and he never went back to Burundi for many years," he said.

"He went back with me.

"He never went to DR Congo and he passed the border for the first time with Peace and Sport.

"He was from the same ethnic groups and because of the actions we were running, his influence was incredibly great.

"All the press wanted to talk to him and his message was received at grassroots, but also at the top of the state by the President.

"This action gives us incredible motivation and gives us the opportunity to change the reality."

Over the last 12 years, Peace and Sport has found it necessary to validate the concepts they have introduced and Nyongabo played a key role in the formation of the Friendship Games in Africa.

Held between Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, the Games were launched in 2009 and bring together 250 children from the war-torn countries.

The countries endured historical conflict throughout the 20th Century, with Burundi claiming independence in 1962, breaking a colonial federation with Rwanda ruled by Belgium.

The Burundian Civil War between 1993 and 2005 created deeper resentment as more than 300,000 people were killed as a result of long-standing ethnic divisions between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes.

The Games work to forge friendships between young people in the area and affords them the opportunity to get to know each other's cultures.

They have been developed alongside National Olympic Committees, national and International Federations and Champions for Peace.

"Through sport, along the borders, we are giving the possibilities to communities to start sport and to meet and co-exist through sport," said Bouzou.

"It is a very difficult place because it is the theatre of genocide and you do not recover from a genocide.

"You can't just turn the page and it is finished because hate is transmitted.

"Sport is a tool to break that hatred and to discover that you can live with the other and exchange with the other."

For Bouzou, also the President of the World Olympians Association, the concepts behind Peace and Sport span much further than 12 years.

It was back in the early 1990s that he set out on a mission to change the sporting map.

He said: "It all began in 1991 when I created another organisation, Together through Sport.

"The goal at this time was to include the kids from immigration in sport clubs and I thought at this time that clubs could be seen as micro societies where the role of sport would apply.

"The aim was to give them the possibility, in a neutral way, to structure their time to learn, but also to speak directly to, the language of sport."

Many of the concepts adopted by Peace and Sport had their origins in the Together through Sport project, with Bouzou running a "Champions in the Street" scheme in the organisation's early days.

"Champions would come in the street with the kids," he said.

"Sometimes the kids were making a lot of mistakes, sometimes in the street, but we were driving them or escorting them to sports clubs and in a passive way they learned a lot about the role of sport.

"That would be an education in citizenship and that worked a lot."

After moving to Monaco in 1997, following his appointment as secretary general at the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM), Bouzou encountered many difficulties maintaining Together through Sport.

He said it was a conundrum of travel and the need to be in two places at once, as his main duties with the UIPM were in Monaco and his commitments to Together through Sport tied him to Paris. This ultimately led to the creation of Peace and Sport.

It was not until 2007 that the charity organisation was developed, though, coming as a reaction to the difficulties faced within Governmental structures at the time.

"In 2007 I created Peace and sport," Bouzou said.

"As secretary general of an international organisation I could see the network of the International Federations and I could see the difficulties which Governments were facing.

"For me it was very interesting because the Prince was going to be Head of State, and in fact he became Head of State nearly at the same time.

"I could see the network of the Head of State, one country with its borders – I'm not talking about Monaco – but with inter-ethnical problems, inter-regional problems, committee problems.

"I could see through my colleagues the neutrality of sport and the capacity sport had to tackle issues."

The concept was forged and from that point on, Peace and Sport has been going from strength to strength.

Working on the foundation that Peace and Sport could create a gathering between those responsible for peace at a Governmental level and those from the sporting world, the first Forum was developed.

"The key question for us was how can we tackle issues which are faced by Governments inside its own borders, through sport, and in a neutral way?" said Bouzou.

"The idea was to make it from Monaco with a neutral organisation and basing it on the neutrality of Monaco.

"We addressed dealing directly with the Head of State, Prime Ministers and the Sport Ministers while at the same time focusing on the sport side with sport leaders so that they would understand that they are much more than sport and can create peace through sport."

Bouzou acknowledges that some countries and sporting organisations were already using sport as a tool for peace but said a key issue which had to be raised was that money was not the point of the exercise.

"The goal was to convince them and to tell them it was not more expensive to run a sport than to run peace through that sport," the 1987 modern pentathlon world champion said.

"For me sport is much more than sport – it is a language and it carries neutrality by itself and universality.

"The role of sport applies in the same way, whoever you are, wherever you are, who you are in regards of your region, your ethnic group, your community and your region.

"So there is really the credibility of neutrality that lies behind the name of Peace and Sport because of the way we are understanding sport."

The initial stages of the organisation's development focused on building dialogue and the clarifications of what exactly peace meant to people.

Peace and Sport did not have the manpower or the message to end wars, but instead worked to establish connections between different cultures, utilising sport as a method of engagement.

In 2019, with diminishing peace-relations between South and North Korea and tensions between India and Pakistan at breaking point, there is no greater need than now for Peace and Sport's message, according to the Frenchman.

Political tensions over the disputed territory of Kashmir prompted the postponement of several sporting events between India and Pakistan, including a Davis Cup tennis tie in Islamabad this month.

The move from the International Tennis Federation came after Pakistan suspended bilateral trade with India in August and announced it would expel India's ambassador. New Delhi had revoked the special autonomy status of Kashmir.

The relations between the countries worsened in February, when a suicide attack in Kashmir killed 40 members of the Indian police force, with Pakistani militants claiming responsibility.

Bouzou knows these deep-seated conflicts date back through generations and does not expect Peace and Sport to resolve the problems each region faces.

Instead, he is targeting engagement.

"We are not judging, we are organising the gathering," said Bouzou.

"The result of that is what they do with it afterwards.

"The first thing is to play and to play fair sport.

"In the beginning a lot of people talk about equality and I give validation to the human rights concepts of the United Nations, but equality does not exist.

"People have different skills and a different past and maybe future.

"But equity, the equality of chances, which is guaranteed by sport, is something which is fundamental.

"Hatred can be broken and I think sport is a fantastic tool for that, so it can work between North and South Korea and between India and Pakistan."

Peace and Sport has been a key player in forging peace relations and tennis stars Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi, from India and Pakistan, are two of its champions.

In 2010, the duo came together to play the men's doubles tournament at Wimbledon, donning t-shirts with the "stop wars, start tennis" motto.

Bouzou added: "We cannot create peace when people do not want to create peace.

"We are not Governments but we can use the force and symbol to show that links are possible.

"Bopanna and Qureshi showed it was possible to play together and then they could talk to their communities."

In partnership with the International Olympic Committee and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), Peace and Sport also played a part in North and South Korea sending a unified women's ice hockey team to the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang.

The collaboration was ignited in 2017 when the sides united at the 2017 IIHF World Championships as part of a social media #whitecard campaign.

The sides posed side by side, brandishing white peace cards on social media, and the campaign reached 98 million people on Twitter.

Awareness is a crucial element of Peace and Sport's work and Bouzou is targeting the education of young people through sport to not only give them a field for sports development, but also an avenue in society.

His mindset is not focused on the development of fancy competitions but instead on spreading the message of inclusion – the inclusion of young people in sport, the harbouring of their talents and the validation of their human rights through the message that is communicated at Peace and Sport gatherings.

Bouzou talks at length about the methodology of "sport simple" solutions.

He has built Peace and Sport on the concept that sport is a tool for peace and on a belief that it can be done at any level, in any place.

Turning fishing nets and two old sticks into a volleyball court and using old tractor tyres to create a boxing ring are among the types of innovative concepts that drive the Peace and Sport methodology.

With such focus on social media and digital technology in the millennial era, Bouzou is excited by the next phase of Peace and Sport's work.

A sport simple app, built through French company MyCoach Sport, will be launched during Peace and Sport's annual Forum in December.

It will be used to dispatch the sport simple methodology to potential educators and people employed by Governments.

Bouzou added: "It is also for communities who could self-finance, even with small salaries.

"People in the frame of social business could become peace through sport educators in very underprivileged communities with basic sport material to develop citizenship.

"If we do this on a large scale we create a more peaceful society and we can make a better contribution to a more peaceful world.

"The application will give access to dignity.

"We can create hope through work and dedication, not only through sport but in other areas and we want people to see that they can change their future.

"If everybody believes in that and plays the same game like that, I think we can create wealth in society and have a better wealth in society in the future."

Beyond that, Bouzou aims to create regional forums to allow more detailed discussions, which would be centered around an area's specific issues.

Throughout 2019, almost 1,200 projects were organised by actors all around the world as part of the mobilisation generated by Peace and Sport to mark the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace.

At the Peace and Sport forum in December, awards will be presented to promote the organisation's successful projects.

They include gongs for the best programme made by an International Federation in the frame of Peace and Sport, the best programme developed by an NGO and the most original successful project run by a Champion For Peace.

"All of these contribute to the promotion of best practices and capitalisation of best practices," said Bouzou.

"We need to keep the motivation and that is why the awards have been created."

So what lessons has Bouzou learned in his time at the helm of Peace and Sport?

"I think I am a more open and tolerant person but I am very realistic," he said.

"There is a lot of work to be done still but I am more and more convinced that sport is a fantastic solution.

"We are lucky that sport has developed so much but this is a really great tool for the future to keep society together.

"In 1991, people would look at me and say 'you are a dreamer'.

"I would tell them 'no, we are not doing it for sport but through sport'.

"Today, the message gets value."

The Peace and Sport forum will be held at One Monte-Carlo in Monaco, between December 11 to 13.