“I don’t remember a world facing so much confrontation, division, polarization. » The progress of the morning of Tuesday, November 21, as part of the 78e session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, did not really contradict Thomas Bach’s impression.
If the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said he was convinced that “the world is currently yearning for unifying things”, citing the resolution for an Olympic truce that he had come to defend, with Tony Estanguet, the president of the Organizing Committee for the Paris 2024 Games, this text did not have a truly unifying effect.
This resolution was certainly adopted. But, for the first time in the history of the modern Games, the Olympic truce was not decided by consensus of the 193 member states of the United Nations. Russia had, in this case, pushed for the text, presented by Tony Estanguet, to be put to a vote, even though this process had never had to be activated during the fifteen previous adoptions, since the introduction of the truce for the Lillehammer Games, 1994.
In the end, “only” one hundred and eighteen countries voted in favor of the resolution (two abstentions, none against) entitled “For the construction of a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal” , which requires – it is not binding – participating countries to cease their hostilities one week before the start of the Olympic Games and up to seven days after the end of the Paralympic Games.
With only 120 countries voting, this truce received the least support from UN members in modern Games history. The previous “record” was held by the truce voted for during the Sochi Winter Games in 2014, which was only approved by 121 countries. “We are very grateful for the overwhelming support for this resolution on the Olympic Truce, with only two abstentions”despite everything, wanted to retain Thomas Bach.
Almost word for word the Beijing text in 2022
The absence of so many voters may be due to the imbroglio caused by Russia’s last-minute vote. The world indeed noted ahead of the vote that it had gone under the radar of many delegations.
“In the current geopolitical context, the UN is going through troubled times,” admits an African diplomat, whose country voted for the truce, but who is not surprised that 42 African countries out of 54 shunned the vote. “Humanitarianism is politicized, sport is politicized: all decisions are now political and no longer relate to content”she notes.
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