General Assembly, in Silence Procedure, Adopts Decision to Observe Olympic Truce throughout Tokyo Games Rescheduled for 2021

With the Games of the XXXII Olympiad rescheduled from 2020 to 2021, owing to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the General Assembly on 6 July confirmed that the Olympic Truce will now be observed from 16 July to 12 September 2021, in line with the new schedule for the premier global sporting events.

Under its silence procedure, the Assembly adopted a decision titled “Building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal” (document A/74/L.73), noting that, because of COVID-19, the Games were rescheduled to be held from 23 July to 8 August 2021, and that the XVI Paralympic Games were rescheduled to be held from 24 August to 5 September 2021, in Tokyo.

As such, the Assembly decided to observe the Olympic Truce throughout the period from the seventh day before the start of the Games of the XXXII Olympiad until the seventh day following the end of the XVI Paralympic Games, to be held in Tokyo in 2021.

By other terms, the Assembly decided to include in the provisional agenda of its seventy-fifth session the sub-item entitled “Building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal” of the item entitled “Sport for development and peace”.

Under decision 74/544, “Procedure for taking decisions of the General Assembly during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic”, adopted on 27 March, the Assembly President is authorized to circulate, after consultation with the General Committee, its draft decisions to all Member States under a silence procedure of at least 72 hours.  If the silence is not broken, the decision should be considered adopted.  On 15 May, through decision 74/555 (document A/74/L.65), the silence procedure was extended until the end of June.  On 18 June, the procedure was extended again until 31 July (document A/74/L.72) (See also Press Releases GA/12244 of 14 May, GA/12245 of 20 May and GA/12251 of 18 June).

The final version of decisions adopted during the resumed part of the General Assembly’s seventy-fourth session will be contained in the Assembly’s official record (document A/74/49 (Vol. III)) after editorial review.