Olympic Torch, Truce— Tools for Peace Activists
Use 2010 Vancouver, 2012 London Games to Press UN for Peace
Oct 11, 2009
What does the Olympic Torch stand for if not a spirit of international cooperation and peace? The Olympic Torch has been lit for the Olympic Games scheduled for 2010 in Vancouver. Vancouver's Winter Games and the subsequent Summer Olympics scheduled for 2012 in London provide both peace activists and educators an opportunity to focus on a rare tradition: the ancient Olympic Truce.
Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General in a May 8th, 2001 speech said,
- “There is remarkable support worldwide for the concept of the Olympic Truce -- this calls for warring parties to lay down their arms while athletes from the entire community of nations meet under the noble flame of the Olympic torch."
The Olympic Truce represents an opportunity, every two years during the summer or winter Games, for the international community to focus attention on humanitarian crises—whether caused by civil strife or international conflicts—and call for a cessation of hostilities for two months. The Olympic Truce could become an important element of the Olympic cycle, and, in an ideal world, a moment every two years for fighting to cease, and negotiations to begin. Key facts:
- The Olympics, resurrected in 1894, are rooted in concepts of global peace and cooperation. The Olympic Truce, revived a half-century later, expresses the fundamental, non-commercial values of the Olympic Charter.
- The International Olympic Committee( IOC) has created two educational institutions for teachers and students, dedicated to the Olympic Truce, the International Olympic Truce Foundation and International Olympic Truce Center.
- No guidelines and little precedent govern the modern Truce. Some view it as a symbolic statement, others as having the potential as a real tool for diplomacy.
Under-Used by Peace Activists, Olympic Truce is Well Known by International Leaders and UN
Since 1992, the Olympic Truce concept has become well known at the UN and among world leaders. Nine UN resolutions support it. Over 400 luminaries, from Bill Clinton to Tony Blair to Nelson Mandela, have endorsed the Olympic Truce. It has been cited public comments by leaders such as former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and speeches by UN representatives of member nations.
History of Olympic Truce as Tool for International Peace
Begun in ancient Greece in the 8th or 9th century BC, the Olympic Truce called for a peace before, during and after the Olympic Games, an important religious festival. Originally created to ensure “safe passage” for Olympic participants and spectators traveling through areas plagued by fighting, the Olympic Truce became associated with a period of peace in the Hellenic world. Cited by Thucydides, the Olympic Truce—which was enforced by fines and penalties-- was observed for over a millennium. The tradition ended, along with the Olympic Games, with the rise of Christianity in ancient Rome.
In the post WWII era, the Olympic Truce was first invoked in 1956 in response to the crackdown by the USSR on the Hungarian uprising, and later in conjunction with the UN response the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia in the early 1990s, and in a 1998 effort to forestall American bombing of Iraq.
- Who Governs It? It’s unclear whether the Olympic Truce “belongs” to any institution. It appears that the UN, the IOC, the Olympic host nation, and others in the Olympic Movement can invoke it. In 1998, Olympic host Japan invoked it. In 2008, over 100 Olympic athletes participating in the Beijing Olympics invoked it on behalf of stopping the genocide in Darfur.
- What's the Connection between IOC and UN? Since the 1990s, the Olympic Truce has provided an important bridge between the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the UN, both of which enjoy a huge global membership of nations. Evidence that the Truce is governed in some fashion by the UN dates from 2005, when Italy introduced the Olympic Truce Resolution at the UN in anticipation of its hosting of the 2006 Games in Turin, extending the period of the Olympic Truce to include the Paralympic Games.
- Up to Two Months of Truce Can Be Demanded. Historically, the Olympic Truce begins one week before the Games open, and lasts until one week after, at minimum. However, given the extension of the Olympic Truce period by standard biennial UN resolution in support of the Olympic Truce, introduced by Italy in 2005, the Olympic Truce now offers a window of seven to eight weeks for cessation of fighting.
Invoking Not the Same as Implementing
The Truce has been invoked repeatedly, but as in the case of the Bosnian crisis, but never yet, in modern times, fully implemented. To implement the Truce, international collaboration and cooperation and the commitment of the UN will be required.
The Olympics, owned by the IOC, are a huge business today, and the IOC, officially speaking, tries not to get involved in politics. But the Olympic Truce is a tradition of mankind. As such it can be both studied in the classroom and invoked by those working on international conflict resolution. And, for students and teachers, it holds lessons in practical solutions, idealism, and peace. (Note: The above research was done by the author for the "Dream for Darfur" campaign 2008.)
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