The United Nations uses that universality to unite individuals and groups through supporting sport for development efforts, participating in events from global to grassroots levels, and developing its own related campaigns and initiatives.
A team of top Swedish gymnasts concluded their tour of the United States with an outdoor performance at the United Nations Headquarters in the summer of 1973.
The performance, which lasted about an hour, took place in front of the visitors’ entrance to the General Assembly building. The 18-member group visited the New York and Washington, DC areas as part of a goodwill tour to promote health and wellness.
At that time, Sweden contributed troops to United Nations peacekeeping operations around the world and would also participate in United Nations Emergency Force IIwas launched in October 1973 after fighting broke out in the Middle East.
Check out part of the 1973 Swedish team’s performance below:
Driver Development
Thanks to its vast scope, unparalleled popularity and foundation of positive values, sport is ideally placed to contribute to the United Nations’ development and peace goals.
In that direction, the General Assembly designated April 6 as International Day of Sport for Development and Peace in a resolution passed in 2013.
World leaders reaffirmed sport as a “vital driver” of sustainable development as they adopted Agenda 2030 for sustainable development in 2015.
Making sports history
Since then, UN initiatives have worked with athletes and associations across the planet, including the ongoing programme Football for a causea platform for the global football community to engage and support Sustainable Development Goals (Sustainable Development Goals).
2016 in Rio, Brazil, refugees made historyparticipated in the Olympics for the first time. A 10-member team, supported by the United Nations refugee agency, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugeesand the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was established to draw attention to the scale of the global refugee crisis, becoming a symbol of hope for refugees around the world who are deprived of the opportunity to represent their countries due to conflict and persecution, or even to play sport.
In the current Paris Olympics, Largest Refugee Olympic Team Everwith 37 athletes competing in 12 sports, continuing to provide a beacon of hope for the estimated 120 million displaced people worldwide. As well boxer Cindy Ngambawho became the first refugee to win an Olympic medal last week.
Yiech Pur Biel, a 2016 Refugee Olympic Team athlete from South Sudan, speaks at the 2016 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) #Withrefugees petition event. (file)
Sports for Peace
Over the years, the cooperation between the IOC and the United Nations has played a central role in spreading the acceptance of sport as a means of promoting internationally agreed development goals as well as peace.
In 1992, the IOC revived an ancient tradition by calling on all nations to observe the Olympic Truce, an eighth-century Greek tradition that calls for an end to hostilities before, during, and after the Games.
This tradition promotes a peaceful environment and ensures safe travel, access and participation for athletes and stakeholders at the Games, thereby mobilizing youth around the world for the cause of peace.
The United Nations and Olympic flags are raised at the United Nations Headquarters. (file)
World body backs Olympic ceasefire
The General Assembly upheld that tradition in 1993 during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, passing resolution A/RES/48/11 to urge member states to observe a ceasefire from the Saturday before the opening to the Saturday after the closing of each Olympic Games.
The resolution itself has become a tradition at the United Nations, most recently for Paris Olympicsadopted every two years before the holding of the Winter and Summer Olympic Games.
Ahead of the 2014 Olympic Games in Russia, Dmitry Chernyshenko, chairman of the Sochi Olympic Organizing Committee, held a a follow-up at the United Nations Headquarters after the General Assembly passed a ceasefire resolution.
“This is a very good tradition that has a very long history, dating back to the first Olympic Games in ancient Greece over 2,700 years ago,” he said. “It was a wonderful initiative to prevent any conflict and war in the week before and the week after the Games, and this tradition was revived in 1993, and we are very excited and happy to say that this resolution has been adopted by the UN General Assembly today.”
Stories from the United Nations Archives
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Join us next time for a deeper dive into history.
