• United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged countries around the world to stop armed conflict as part of the ‘Olympic Truce’.

• Guterres highlighted the horrendous suffering in Gaza, the seemingly endless war in Ukraine, terrible suffering from Sudan to the Democratic Republic of Congo, from the Sahel to Myanmar.

• The Olympic Games kicked off on July 26 and will end on August 11 with the participation of more than 10,500 athletes representing 206 nations and territories.

• These include a Palestinian team, which while not a full member of the United Nations, has an official national Olympic Committee, as well as athletes from Russia and Belarus, who will compete as neutrals without a flag or emblem following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

What is the ‘Olympic Truce’?

• The tradition of the “Olympic Truce”, or “Ekecheiria”, was established in Greece in the ninth century BC through the signing of a treaty between three kings — Iphitos of Elis, Cleosthenes of Pisa and Lycurgus of Sparta.

• During this truce period, athletes, artists and their families, and ordinary pilgrims could travel safely to take part in or watch the Olympic Games and then return to their respective countries.

• In 1992, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) renewed this tradition by calling upon all nations to observe the Truce.

• Since 1993, the United Nations General Assembly has repeatedly expressed its support for the Olympic Truce.

• In November 2023, the UN General Assembly adopted a vote to observe the truce in Paris.

• The resolution has become a UN tradition as it is up for consideration every two years, in advance of the Summer and Winter Olympic Games.

• The Olympic movement aspires to contribute to a peaceful future for humankind through the educational value of sport. 

• It brings together athletes from all parts of the world in the greatest of international sports events, the Olympic Games, and it aims to promote the maintenance of peace, mutual understanding and goodwill — goals it shares with the United Nations. 

• As an expression of these common objectives, in 1998 the International Olympic Committee decided to fly the United Nations flag at all competition sites of the Olympic Games.

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