Tourism2030 - Olympic Peace through Tourism London 2012

Make Your Peace: An Olympic Truce Guide For Educators

2014-11-21T05:07:31Z

Designed for classroom teaching, the guide seeks to engage Canadian youth in the Olympic Truce by learning about the value of sport and inspiring them to act on the principles of Olympism in their everyday lives through fun, interactive, and reflective school projects. Designed by /EDU, the online Canadian school portal for the Games created by VANOC, the educators’ guide will be available in the coming weeks at www.vancouver2010.com/edu.

Olympic Truce: Peace Inspired by Sport

2014-11-21T01:28:03Z

Linking Sport to Peace this IOTC publication shows the support for the Truce at the UN and IOC and among the Olypmic Atheletes themselves, as well as the call for the 2008 Beijing Games, noted for its failure to stop the Darfur Genocide that is being backed by China

Olympic Peace through Tourism London 2012 - Defining Tourism Stakeholders` Contributions (update April 2010)

2014-11-20T16:49:25Z

Tourism stakeholder strategy initiated in the ´Olympic Rings of Light` process.

Defining Tourism Stakeholders` Contributions to achieve a 16 day Worldwide Truce during the London 2012 Olympics

In a nutshell:

As the 5000 year old Mayan Calendar draws to a close in 2012, in the grip of multiple global crises, on the brink of socio-economic and environmental limits, a global population above 7 billion, every individual in the chain of suffering, the aim: to achieve the UN-backed 16 day Worldwide Truce during the London 2012 Olympics. Inner Peace, Global Peace - moving from a culture of violence to a culture of peace, locally and globally – we all want it, the world needs it. It`s for the people, the planet and prosperity for all- it needs your participation – we can do it together, and when it happens we will glimpse a truly sustainable international world order, and all benefit personally and collectively, materially and spiritually.

The 16 days of world peace in 2012 that has been designated by the IOC and backed by the UN to accompany the Olympic (and Para-Olympics) competitions is an aim worthy of our everyday effort, is obtainable in our lifetime, and is a positive and enlightened response to the challenges of climate change, poverty, loss of biodiversity and socio-economic collapse. It should not remain as a rhetorical goodwill statement, but be turned into a real force for global harmony and prosperity. It is a monumental task, only capable of being executed by many professional people as well as local citizens following this common vision and moral purpose.

2008 Truce Letter signed by over 100 Olympic Athletes to the Worlds Leading Politicans

2014-11-20T17:53:40Z

The Honorable George W. Bush The Honorable Nicolas Sarkozy

President of the United States President of France

His Excellency Ban Ki-moon The Honorable Gordon Brown

Secretary General of the United Nations Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

The Honorable Hu Jintao The Honorable Dmitry Medvedev

President of the People’s Republic of China President of Russia

Dr. Jacques Rogge

International Olympic Committee President

Dear Sirs,

In our common aspiration to realize the ideals of the Olympic Games, we, the undersigned, urge the international community to convince the Government of Sudan to observe an Olympic Truce for Darfur before, during, and after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Through this letter, we issue an urgent call to the conscience of the international community. The violence in Sudan has gone on for too long. We hope you will use the opportunity of the Olympic Truce to work to end

it.

The Olympic Truce originated in ancient Greece; in recent history, world leaders have invoked the Olympic Truce as an opportunity for the international community to expend exceptional effort, as athletes strive for medals, to create and promote peace.

In that vein, and in keeping with the Olympic spirit, we ask you to make your efforts for peace in Darfur “swifter, higher, stronger.” Traditionally the Olympic Truce commences one week before the Olympic Games and ends one week after the Paralympic Games. This year, the truce period begins on August 1, 2008 and continues for 55 days. In 2003, the United Nations reaffirmed the importance of the Olympic Truce in an statement signed by more than 400 heads of state and dignitaries who pledged “to support and disseminate, individually and collectively, the symbolic call for Olympic Truce throughout all future Olympic Games and beyond, and to exercise our best efforts within our communities, countries, and relevant international organizations to achieve its recognition and observance.”

Olympic Rings of Light - Event Poster

2014-11-21T18:03:57Z

Poster of the 80808 24 Hour Olympic Sit in Meditation held in Lagos Portugal launching the Olympic Rings of Light Campaign, linking inner peace and global peace.

16 Days: The Role of the Olympic Truce in the Toolkit for Peace

2014-11-20T19:59:39Z

Produced by the Demos Think Tank Athens 2003 (Rachel Briggs, Helen McCarthy ,Alexis Zorbas)

Key points:

`the starting point for turning a culture of violence into a culture of peace`.

This analysis – that the causes of conflict are highly distributed – suggests that the practical and moral responsibility for peace-building should also be distributed if efforts are to be successful. As has been suggested elsewhere in this report, this means that the work of the Olympic Truce should encompass a wide range of actors – the Olympic Movement, international bodies such as the UN, national governments and their political leaders, sportsmen and women, the non-governmental community, the media and communications industry, sports networks and Olympic Games host cities.

Firstly, models of distributed responsibility are critical to the success of the Olympic Truce. Highly centralised control mechanisms would likely discourage actors from taking ownership of the Truce and, as has been learned from regulatory efforts across a wide range of policy areas, such models can stifle creativity and innovation and therefore impede performance.

But given the timeframes within which progress is made in tackling conflict, the success of the Truce depends on the development of an effective governance system that can maintain momentum over time and space. More thinking is needed on the type of configuration that will best serve this purpose.

Secondly, and more fundamentally, this report has shown that the success of all conflict resolution and peace-building initiatives relies on being able to make changes at the most personal level, influencing the decisions and behaviour of individuals, from normal citizens to international statesmen and women. This is the starting point for turning a culture of violence into a culture of peace. As we reconfigure the conflict-prevention and peace-building architectures to allow us to navigate this transition under the new realities of conflict, we must also ensure that individuals understand what this means for their relationship with and involvement in conflict. And given the collaborate nature of conflict prevention, this understanding can only be built through conversation and discussion between the different actors about their relative roles and the ways in which they relate to one another. (P73 p74)

Contents:

Acknowledgements 7

About the authors 8

Demos: an international think tank 10

Foreword by George A. Papandreou 13

1. Introduction 15

2. Olympism and peace 23

3. Conflict and reconciliation in the twenty-first century 31

4. Cultures of violence and cultures of peace 43

5. Opportunities for peace-building 50

6. The power of sport 63

7. Taking the Olympic Truce forward 72

Appendix 1

The Olympic Truce 82

Appendix 2

Signatories of the Olympic Truce 84

Appendix 3

UN resolution on the Olympic Truce 99

Notes 103

Algarve Olympic Rings of Light 2010 Mayan Calendar and Yoga Poster

2014-11-21T05:13:35Z

Promotional Event poster for the Inner Peace Global Peace London Olympics Campaign.