France: The UN General Assembly has approved a resolution calling for the observance of an “Olympic truce” for the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2024. The resolution was accepted by 118 votes in favour and none against. Russia and its ally Syria abstained in protest of Moscow’s recent expulsion from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The latest Olympic truce, an ancient Greek tradition that the IOC revived during the Barcelona games of 1992, comes at a time of two wars of global impact, including those in Ukraine and Gaza.
The Gaza war was barely mentioned during the General Assembly debate. Only the representative of Egypt mentioned the Gaza war, noting that talk of an Olympic truce should be understood as a message to Israel to accept a ceasefire.
However, the debate focused on the Ukraine conflict when Russian representative Ms. Maria Zabolotskaya warned that her country, which had “always” supported the Olympic truce, would abstain this year in protest of “the illegal exclusion of Russian athletes from international sports competitions.” Russia was expelled from the IOC on Oct. 5 as a sanction for annexing four regions of Ukraine.
Mr. Thomas Bach, the IOC President, responded to the Russian representative, saying that “in the Olympic Movement, there is no ‘global south’ or ‘global north.’ At the Olympic Games, we are all equal.” According to the President, Moscow violated the integrity of the Ukrainian National Olympic Committee “by including as its members sports organisations of Ukrainian regions that it had annexed.”
Mr. Bach further warned against the Russian move to organise the World Friendship Games from September 15 to 29, 2024, in Moscow and Yekaterinburg as an alternative to the Paris Olympics.
“This would lead to the political fragmentation of international sport. It would lead to sports competitions taking place along political lines: the Games of Political Block A. The Games of Political Block B. And so on,” the President noted.
Mr. Bach added that “in this Olympic spirit, I call on you to come together, adopt the resolution, but even more importantly, uphold this noble Olympic Truce.”
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