NEW YORK: The UN General Assembly has adopted Olympic Truce for Beijing 2022, highlighting the contribution of sport to the promotion of peace and solidarity.
The resolution entitled “Building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal” was adopted Thursday by consensus and co-sponsored by 173 Member States at the 76th Session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly (GA) in New York. It calls for the observance of the Olympic Truce for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Beijing 2022, from seven days before the start of the Olympic Games, on 4 February 2022, until seven days after the end of the Paralympic Games.
The resolution “underlines the importance of cooperation among Member States to collectively implement the values of the Olympic Truce around the world, and emphasises the important role of the International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee and the United Nations in this regard”.
It also expresses “the expectation that the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 will be a meaningful opportunity to harness the power of sport to advance the world by fostering an atmosphere of peace, development, resilience, tolerance and understanding, and welcoming all the delegations of National Olympic and Paralympic Committees to participate in the Games”.
The resolution “calls upon all Member States to cooperate with the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee in their efforts to use sport as a tool to promote peace, dialogue and reconciliation in areas of conflict during and beyond the period of the Olympic and Paralympic Games”.
During the debate on the resolution, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was represented by IOC Member and Permanent Observer for the IOC to the UN, Luis Alberto Moreno. He delivered the speech of the IOC president Thomas Bach, who could not be present due to the current pandemic situation.
The Olympic Truce has a 3,000 year-old history, dating from when the Ancient Greeks established the “Ekecheiria” – a sacred truce – to allow the participation in the Olympic Games of all athletes and spectators from the Greek city-states, which were otherwise almost constantly engaged in conflict with one other.
The resolution was co-sponsored by 173 out of 193 UN Member States.
The tradition of the Ekecheiria
The Olympic Truce, or Ekecheiria, is a tradition that was established in Ancient Greece in the ninth century BC to ensure a halt of all hostilities, allowing the safe passage and participation of athletes and spectators taking part in the Olympic Games.
Since 1993, the UN General Assembly has repeatedly expressed its support for the Olympic Games and the IOC, by adopting, every two years, a year before each edition of the Olympic Games, a resolution entitled “Building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal”.
Through this symbolic resolution, the UN invites its Member States to observe the Olympic Truce individually or collectively, and to seek, in conformity with the goals and principles of the United Nations Charter, the peaceful settling of all international conflicts through peaceful and diplomatic means, and to recognise the importance of the IOC’s initiatives for human well-being and international understanding.
Keeping the ancient heritage alive
On 17 October this year, on the eve of the flame-lighting for the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, the original parties to the Ekecheiria – the cities of Olympia, Ilida and Sparta – solemnly renewed their pledge with their Olympic Truce declaration, highlighting once again the role of the Olympic Games as a symbol of peace and unity.
The Olympic Games Beijing 2022 will take place from 4 to 20 February 2022, and will be followed by the Paralympic Games, from 4 to 13 March 2022.
