The United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday night approved the call for an "Olympic ceasefire" during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. 118 hands were raised in favor of the resolution, zero opposed, but the celebration was ruined by Russia and Syria, which chose to abstain, in protest of the ouster of the Russians from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
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The resolution calls on member states to "maintain the individual and collective Olympic pause" from seven days before the start of the Paris Olympic Games (which get underway on July 26 to August 11) until seven days after the end of the Paralympic Games (August 28 to September 8).
The resolution is actually a demand to stop wars and hostilities during the Games, but for the first time it comes at a time when two wars are at their peak, the one between Russia and Ukraine and the one between Israel and the Palestinians. The Egyptian representative took the opportunity to mention the "iron swords" war and demanded that the resolution send a message to Israel to "accept the ceasefire unconditionally."
The conflict in Ukraine also eventually entered into debate on Tuesday, when Russian representative Maria Zavolotskaya took the right to speak and warned that her country, having "always" supported the Olympic pause, would abstain this year in protest against the "illegal exclusion of Russian athletes from international sports competitions."
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IOC President Thomas Bach replied: "In the Olympic Games, there is no 'Southern World' or 'Northern World'; We are all equal, and we must be politically neutral and accept everyone." However, he noted that Moscow, by annexing regions in Ukraine, violated the way of the International Olympic Committee. Bach also warned against Russia's plan to organize the World Friendly Games from September 15 to 29, 2024, as an alternative to the Paris Olympics. He argued that such a move would "lead to a political fragmentation of international sport."
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