News Room
"China's Olympic Truce
Resolution" Excluding Values
On
Wednesday October 31st China
will
introduce its Olympic Truce resolution at the United Nations General
Assembly
and it is expected to pass same day. The Resolution is entitled
"Building
a Peaceful and Better World Through Sport and the Olympic Ideal." 
According to the
International Olympic Committee, the
Olympic Truce Resolution’s role in modern games is
“protecting, as far as the
as possible the interests of the athletes and sport in general, and to
continue
for the search for the search for peaceful and diplomatic solutions to
the
world’s conflicts.”
It seems that its
role does not extend to the Tibetan conflict.
Historically the
“Olympic Truce” was used to make the
Greek city of Olympia
a sanctuary where all
persons could travel safely to the Olympia
to participate and enjoy the Olympic Games. Over the next 12 centuries
the
Olympic Truce would become one of the most
“political” international treaties
in history.
In 1991, following the
breakup of the Republic of
Yugoslavia and the creation of the UN Security Counsel Sanctions
Committee,
Resolution 757 included “sport” as a sanctioned
element for the first time. As
a result the IOC decided to reaffirm Yugoslavia’s
independence, “defend the
athletes’ interests, protect the Olympic Games and
consolidate the unity of the
Olympic movement”
Last year during the
Winter Olympic Games in Turin Italy,
the organizers and their partners organized a massive program of
initiatives to
promote and raise awareness about the Olympic Truce and the values it
represents:
peaceful society, human dignity, respect, and tolerance. The IOC seems
to have
forgotten the Turin Tibetan Youth Congress
led indefinite Hunger Strike which
tried to raise awareness for those same values. This included a 72 year
old
Tibetan monk who was Tibet’s
second longest serving political prisoner. The Hunger Strike was called
off
after the hunger strikers received concrete assurances by executive
committee
of IOC would follow up on the demands of the hunger strikers. No such
follow up
was ever done.
The International
Olympic Committee states in its charter
that it “endeavors to uplift 'the establishment of a peaceful
society concerned
with the preservation of human dignity.” By giving China
the honor of hosting the Olympic Games the IOC has clearly reneged its
principles of “peaceful society” and
“human dignity” as the dignity of the
Tibetans inside of Tibet
continues to be compromised.
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