Celebrating the Olympic Spirit

Secretary-General,
President Bach,
Your Serene Highness,
Mr. Nuzman,
Minister Leyser,
Mr. Annan,
Mr. Lemke,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is my distinct honour to welcome you all to the Palais des Nations this morning to celebrate the strong bonds of friendship between the Olympic Movement and the United Nations. I wish to sincerely thank the International Olympic Committee, the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Permanent Mission of Brazil to the United Nations Office at Geneva and the United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace for making it possible for us all today to partake in the Olympic spirit. Special thanks to his Serene Highness Prince Albert of Monaco for his high patronage of numerous activities for the benefit of youth and sports around the world and for being with us today.

We are gathered here in the presence of the Olympic Flame, that powerful symbol of universal peace and brotherhood. The flame, which was lit in the birthplace of the Ancient Olympic Games – Olympia in Greece – just completed a tour of that country and will soon travel to Brazil, where it will embark on a 95-day, 36,000-kilometre journey by land and air. As it passes through 83 cities and some 500 towns, the flame will embody the ideals of the Olympic Movement: peace, equality, tolerance, solidarity and fair play.

These values find their echo in the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, two of the foundational documents of our organization. To quote the Secretary-General, “Olympic principles are UN principles.” Our common pursuit of universality, solidarity, non-discrimination and sustainability leads the International Olympic Committee and the United Nations to speak with one voice on some of the most pressing issues of our times. Last October, the United Nations General Assembly urged Member States to observe the Olympic Truce, the IOC’s call for a universal ceasefire during the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Speaking at UN Headquarters on that occasion, President Bach announced that the IOC would invite refugee athletes, who otherwise would not have been able to compete, to participate in the 2016 Games under the Olympic flag. Coming at a time of increased anti-refugee sentiments, this move bolstered a vital UN message to the world’s refugees: you are equal and valued members of our international family. President Bach and the IOC have also lent their voices to the global struggle against pay disparities between men and women, sexism and gender discrimination; commitments that UN Women honoured in 2015 by naming Mr. Bach a ‘He for She’ ambassador.

The International Olympic Committee and the United Nations share not only fundamental values, but the conviction that sports can transform our ideals into meaningful action on the great issues of our time. Today’s gathering commemorates the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace, which the UN General Assembly created in 2013 in recognition of “sports as a means to promote education, health, development and peace.” This important work is carried out by the Special Advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace, Mr. Wilfried Lemke, and his Geneva-based office. Mr. Lemke, like his predecessor Mr. Adolf Ogi, tackles his mandate by mobilizing elements of the UN System, forging alliances with partners like the IOC, organizing its annual Youth Leadership Programme and drawing on the renown of goodwill ambassadors. Since 2014, Mr. Lemke has benefited from the support of the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Youth Refugees and Sports, IOC Honorary President Jacques Rogge, who laid much of the modern foundation for today’s cooperation between the United Nations and the International Olympic Committee. The fruits of all these efforts were on display in 2012, when the Secretary-General and then IOC President Rogge travelled to Zambia to visit grassroots sports programmes for development, and in 2014, when the Secretary-General and President Bach officially opened the “Sport pour l’espoir” centre in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Over the years, the International Olympic Committee and the United Nations have recognized their partnership in several ways. In 1999, when Mr. Kofi Annan was Secretary-General, the IOC bestowed its Olympic Cup Award to the UN, a high honour it will repeat today, while in 2009, the UN General Assembly granted the IOC observer status as a tribute to the Committee’s contributions towards the Millennium Development Goals. In 2014, our two organizations signed their first Memorandum of Understanding as UN General Assembly Resolution 69/6 recognized the IOC’s leadership role in sports and its independence.

Secretary-General and President Bach, you are furthering this cooperation at a transformational moment for both the International Olympic Committee and the United Nations. Great technological, societal and economic changes make it necessary for our organizations to rapidly adapt to better serve our mandates. To quote the IOC president, “We want to be the leaders of change, not the object of change.”

To meet the expectations of the global community, the Secretary-General and President Bach are leading efforts to break down administrative silos, foster creative solutions to today’s challenges, support bottom-up activism and forge constructive partnerships. Under your leadership, the International Olympic Committee and the United Nations have found common cause on the Sustainable Development Goals, especially in the areas of peace, gender equality and youth empowerment. And the world thanks you for that.