UN Looks to the Winter Olympics 2026 for Peace, Calls for 52-Day Pause in Wars

The Winter Olympics 2026 is scheduled to start on February 6 with the opening ceremony taking place at the San Siro Stadium.

UN Looks to the Winter Olympics 2026 for Peace, Calls for 52-Day Pause in Wars

IOC president Kirsty Coventry at the 145th IOC Session held in Milan ahead of the Winter Olympics 2026 (Image via The Daily Sabah)

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The United Nations has called for a 52-day pause on all wars ahead of the Winter Olympics, starting unofficially tomorrow with curling events. The international organization revoked a centuries-old tradition to ensure the safety and protection of the athletes, officials, and spectators amid the global multi-sport event.

The past year saw a resurgence in interstate conflicts, including long-running disputes, genocides, and continued direct conflicts, with at least nine capital cities targeted by an airstrike. The Armed Conflict Survey reported that approximately a quarter million people have lost their lives between July 2024 and June 2025, not accounting for consequential malnutrition and starvation deaths.

The heightened global tension has prompted the United Nations to call for a pause and the IOC to institute a truce as millions of lives can be compromised in instants. Backed by the United Nations General Assembly, the International Olympic Committee’s “Olympic Truce” covers both the Olympics and the Paralympics.

The Winter Olympics 2026 will see more than 2800 athletes from 92 participating national Olympic committees. The Olympics will be quickly followed by the Winter Paralympics in Milan and Cortina D’Ampezzo from March 6, 2026. Around 665 athletes from 52 different nations are scheduled to be in attendance for the Paralympics.

“On ethical grounds, we want to send a message that the Olympic Truce, the Sacred Olympic Truce, should be respected. This may not always be achievable in practice. But the message reaches every corner of the globe: that wherever possible, we should strive toward creating even a small space for peace,” the International Olympic Truce Centre director, Constantinos Filis, said.

The International Olympic Committee has previously instituted a similar truce in 1994 during the height of the Bosnian War amid the Lillehammer Winter Games. The Siege of Sarajevo, the longest military blockade of any capital city in history, was paused for a day to allow aid convoys to deliver food and medicine to the people of Sarajevo. There has been some level of truce through the Games since then.

The call for a pause in wars is rooted in a tradition that goes beyond the modern Olympics. In the ninth century BC, the kings of Elis, Pisa, and Sparta signed a treaty to allow safe participation for all athletes and spectators from their city-states during the ancient Olympics.

U.S. ICE Agents trigger growing unease in Italy amid Winter Olympics opening ceremony a few days away

Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, the host cities for the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, are facing growing unease over the anticipated presence of agents from the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The Department of Homeland Security has informed and reassured that the agency will only help in monitoring crime and ensuring safety, and not enforce immigration in a foreign country. However, it wasn’t sufficient to stop the demonstrators who took to the streets on Saturday.

Thousands of demonstrators huddled in Milan to protest the presence of ICE in Milan during the Winter Olympics and Paralympics 2026
Thousands of demonstrators huddled in Milan to protest the presence of ICE in Milan during the Winter Olympics and Paralympics 2026 (Image via Getty Images)

Though such agencies have assisted the Department of Homeland Security in past Olympics in monitoring criminal activities, it is the recent killings in Minneapolis that have outraged people across the globe. The protestors huddled in the Piazza XXV Aprile were seen holding placards of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two high-profile murders involving the agency.

Mayor Giuseppe Sala of Milan called out ICE as a militia and informed that the agents weren’t welcome in Milan. Sala told local media last week:

This is a militia that kills, a militia that enters into the homes of people, signing their own permission slips. It is clear they are not welcome in Milan, without a doubt.

In a related incident, the US had renamed its hospitality venue in the Fashion City from Ice House to Winter House as a ripple effect of mounting pressure against the agency.

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