A Brief History of the Olympic Truce and its Relevance Today

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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 signicant 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 lled between UN resolutions and ‘on-the-ground’ actions. Yet from this basis, each country has a mandate to dene 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.

Creating a National Olympic Truce Promotion and Reporting Strategy

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Download the the PDF 'Creating a National Olympic Truce Promotion and Reporting Strategy' to see what steps you will need to undertake to do your Olympic Truce promotion and reporting work.

Study the Global Peace Index to see your country's conflict profile in detail.

Read the London 2012 Olympic Truce Campaign final report to see what happened in the last Games.

Olympic Truce Report Cards

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This section contains forms that will allow you to check the contribution of key stakeholders to the truce

process. There are three types of Truce Report Cards.

1) Rio 2016 Olympic Truce Awareness Report Card

2) Rio 2016 Responsible Stakeholder Contribution Report Card - making stakeholders contributions to the Truce process transparent

3) Rio 2016 Olympic Truce Country/City/Regional Report Card - reporting on the Truce implementation process in a given area

Please speak with your Truce Ambassador mentor to understand how to fill in the forms.

Application to be an olympic truce peace ambassador

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Application form to be an Olympic Truce Peace Ambassador for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games

Tourism2030 - Olympic Truce Peace Ambassadors Training Room

A Brief History of the Olympic Truce and its Relevance Today

Creating a National Olympic Truce Promotion and Reporting Strategy

Olympic Truce Report Cards

Application to be an olympic truce peace ambassador