International Forum on Sport for Peace and the Olympic Truce

Olympia, Greece - May 19-21, 2007

“The IOC was founded on the belief that sport, especially in an Olympic context, can bring benefits beyond those simply related to physical activity. Sport is a global language. It does not matter where you come from – everyone, given the chance, can speak ‘Sport’! Sport fosters understanding between individuals, facilitates dialogue between divergent communities and breeds tolerance between nations.” Dr Jacques Rogge - IOC President President of the International Olympic Truce Foundation

Sport for Peace and the Olympic Truce –

The International Forum on Sport for Peace and the Olympic Truce seeks to promote synergies among various stakeholders with one shared objective: to promote peace through sport and the Olympic ideal – on a political as well as a grassroots level.

IOC President Jacques Rogge explains: “The world around us has a strong desire for peace. Sport can contribute to this aspiration. Acting alone, it cannot enforce nor maintain peace, but I have no doubt that it can play its role as part of a collaborative effort with organisations and agencies specialised in this field.”

The International Forum on Sport for Peace and the Olympic Truce is jointly organised by the Greek Government, the International Olympic Truce Centre, the International Olympic Academy and the Greek National Olympic Committee.

How to Inspire Peace through the Olympic Truce -

The IOC revived the ancient concept of the Olympic Truce in 1992 and in the lead-up to the 1994 Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted a Resolution entitled “Building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal”.

Since then, prior to each edition of the Olympic Games the United Nations passes the symbolic Olympic Truce resolution inviting its Member States to observe the Olympic Truce individually or collectively, and to seek, in conformity with the goals and principles of the UN Charter, the settling of all international conflicts through peaceful and diplomatic means.

In calling on all nations to respect and observe the Olympic Truce during the celebration of the XX Olympic Winter Games in Torino (February 2006), United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan cited the fundamental values and ideals shared by both the Olympic Movement and the United Nations - tolerance and understanding, equal opportunity and fair play, and most of all, peace.

"In a world growing ever closer and more interconnected, and yet still riven by brutal conflict, dire poverty and cruel injustice, it is more important than ever that we all join forces to give life to those ideals."

"One way we can do that is to observe the Olympic Truce - the call for warring parties to lay down their arms while athletes from the community of nations meet under the noble flame of the Olympic torch"

"While limited in duration and scope, the Olympic Truce can offer a neutral point of consensus, a window of time to open a dialogue, a pause to provide relief to a suffering population."

"Over the years, a great deal of support has been voiced worldwide for the concept of the Truce. The challenge before us is to ensure that it has as many practitioners as it has supporters on paper."

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