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Folder A Brief History of the Olympic Truce and its Relevance Today

The Olympic Tradition – A Pause for Peace

For the ancient Greeks the Olympics were a Holy Games, during which war was stopped and nations competed together in the spirit of friendship. The Olympic Truce aspect of Olympic competitions was characterised in the sacred tradition of the original spirit of the Games by the Greek word ‘Ekecheiria’ – meaning a period of time-limited peace in all competing nations, including safe passage for athletes and visitors for the duration of the Games.The Olympic Truce became a time of peace between wars, offering safe travel and friendly sports competition between different city states during the period of the Games. It now offers an historic legacy of how to create peace  across the globe in our insecure, troubled contemporary international society.

The modern Olympic Games, as a large-scale event that symbolises human excellence and inter-cultural harmony, has accordingly been singled out by the UN as a signiƒcant opportunity to address worldwide challenges of violence and poverty. e UN recalled this means of achieving peace on earth in the 90s and, even in the Millennium Declaration, as part of the means to achieve the stated poverty eradication, environmental stability and social equality targets. Furthermore, the policy is embedded in a protocol whereby the Host country submits a UN Resolution in the build-up to each Olympics (UN Declaration on Sport and Peace 2012).

However, it should be immediately noted that the IOC and UN have adopted the position that the Truce is one ‘that is inspired, rather than enforced’, and the task of the inspiration is left to the UN, the IOC’s International Olympic Truce Centre, and the host country. The Truce Resolution was formally submitted to the General Assembly by the Chair of the Rio 2016 Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in October 2015. It was passed by  most UN member states, with all 180 member states signing up to the Resolution, which calls for an ambitious  period of peace  starting a week before the Opening Cermenony of the Games (July 28th 2016) and ending a week after the Para-Olympic competition finishes (18th Sepember 2016)

However, the UN resolutons do not really provide guidance on how the Truce cabn be implemented, and there is a large credibility gap to be ƒlled between UN resolutions and ‘on-the-ground’ actions. Yet from this basis, each country has a mandate to deƒne and implement national programmes to make the Truce a reality.

For more informaition See the Official Page of the International Olympic Truce Foundation - the Official IOC body responsible for the Truce.