1. THE OLYMPIC TRUCE
A truce (which literally means "holding
of hands") was announced before and
during each of the Olympic festivals, to
allow visitors to travel safely to
Olympia. A Truce was announced
before and during the Olympic
Games to ensure athletes and
spectators could travel safely to the
Games and peacefully return to their
respective countries An inscription
describing the truce was written on a
bronze discus which was displayed at
Olympia. During the truce, wars were
suspended, armies were prohibited
from entering Elis or threatening the
Games, and legal disputes and the
carrying out of death penalties were
forbidden.

2. THE SYMBOL
The Olympic Truce is symbolized by the
dove of peace, with the traditional
Olympic flame in the background. In a
world plagued by wars and animosity,
the peace-dove symbol represents one of
the IOC's ideals and challenges: to build
a peaceful and better world through
sport and the Olympic ideal. The Olympic
flame has brought warm friendship to all
the people of the world through sharing
and togetherness. In the symbol, the
flame is made up of colourful
effervescent elements – evoking the joy
experienced in the celebration of the
human spirit. These elements represent
people of all races coming together for
the observance of the Truce.

3. THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC
TRUCE FOUNDATION
In the framework of promoting peace
through sport and the Olympic ideal, the
IOC established an International Olympic
Truce Foundation (IOTF) in July 2000. Its
headquarters are in Lausanne, and it has a
symbolic office in Olympia. The IOTF
defines its actions around the following
objectives:
• To promote the Olympic ideals to serve
peace, friendship and understanding in the
world, and in particular, to promote the
ancient Greek tradition of the Olympic
Truce;
• To initiate conflict prevention and resolution
through sport, culture and the Olympic
ideals, particularly by cooperating with all
inter- and non-governmental organisations
specialised in this field, by developing
educational and research programmes, and
by launching communications campaigns
to promote the Olympic Truce.

4. GOAL
• Mobilize youth for the promotion of the Olympic
ideals
• Use sport to establish contacts between
communities in conflict
• Offer humanitarian support in countries at war
• Create a window of opportunities for dialogue
and reconciliation
• Olympic Truce is taken seriously for the first
time by member states of the United Nations.
• For the British government, as proposer of the
London 2012 Truce Resolution to the General
Assembly of the UN, to lead by example in
identifying two or three initiatives which it will
implement for the Truce and announcing them
when they formally move the Resolution in
October, 2011.
• Humanitarian aid reaches conflict zones during
the period of Truce saving lives.
• Some dialogue commences in current conflicts.
• To raise awareness of the Olympic Truce and
rediscover its values as the founding purposes
of the Olympic Games.
• The legacy of the Truce from the UK 2012 raises
the international bar of expectation for the Truce
for Russia (2014) and Brazil (2016)

5. WHAT ARE SOME PRACTICAL WAYS
TO ACHIEVE THESE GOALS:
• Create a humanitarian window, in co-ordination with the UN, NATO and
EU, through which immunisation and vaccination of children could be
delivered into conflict areas around the world where combatants agree
to observe the Olympic Truce in London 2012.
• The Prime Minister David Cameron could announce that the Coalition
government will take the Olympic Truce seriously and that he will
personally propose the Truce Resolution to the General Assembly of the
United Nations.
• Instruct the Olympics Cabinet sub-committee to collate ideas from
inside government and outside as to how the Olympic Truce could be
implemented.

6. UNITED NATIONS SUPPORT
The United Nations is in support of the Olympic Truce and
before each Olympic Games, adopts a resolution called
"Building a peaceful and better world through sport and the
Olympic ideal". UN Member States are asked to observe the
Olympic Truce, and work towards the settlement of
international disagreements by peaceful and diplomatic
means. The United Kingdom was the first ever nation to get
all 193 UN Member states to sign the Olympic Truce for
the 2012 Olympic Games.

7. • In July 2000, the International Olympic Committee,
in close cooperation with Greece, established the
International Olympic Truce Foundation and its
operational arm, the International Olympic Truce
Centre, with the goal of reviving the ancient
tradition of the Olympic Truce.
• The Olympic Truce Centre is an international non-
governmental organization which operates within
the framework of the Olympic Movement. Its
mission is to promote the Olympic Ideal, to serve
peace, friendship and international understanding,
and to uphold the Olympic Truce. It promotes a
Culture of Peace, through a combination of global
and local initiatives, mobilizing leaders, athletes
and young people of the world behind the cause of
sport and peace.
• The symbolic seat of the International Olympic
Truce Centre is in Olympia, birthplace of the
Olympic Games. The Centre has a liaison office in
Lausanne, Switzerland, home of the International
Olympic Committee. The executive offices of the
International Olympic Truce Centre are in Athens,
where the first Games of the modern era were held
in 1896.

8. • The Olympic truce was faithfully observed, for the most part, although
the historian Thucydides recounts that the Lacedaemonians were
banned from participating in the Games, after they attacked a fortress
in Lepreum, a town in Elis, during the truce. The Lacedaemonians
complained that the truce had not yet been announced at the time of
their attack. But the Eleans fined them two thousand minae, two for
each soldier, as the law required.
• Another international truce was enforced during the annual Mysteries,
a religious rite held at the major sanctuary site of Eleusis. The truces
of Olympia and Eleusis not only allowed worshippers and athletes to
travel more safely; they also provided a common basis for peace
among the Greeks. Lysistrata, the title character in a comic play by
Aristophanes, makes this point when she tries to convince the
Athenians and the Spartans to end their war.