War (or peace)? The Olympic Truce and Las Fallas by Horst Cerni

On 19 November 2025, the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution to honor the Olympic Truce, as proposed by the IOC President and the Milano Cortina Wintergames organizing committee. The objective was to build a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal. This Olympic Truce was to be enforced during the Olympics from 6 February through 15 March, 2026, the conclusion of the Paralympics.

Sadly, we know, the war in the Ukraine has intensified, Iran was attacked and fighting continued in the Sudan, the Congo, etc. No attempt was made to give peace a chance. The IOC claimed it didn’t have the power. Yet, Russia was excluded from the Winter Olympics, although allowed to participate at the Paralympics. Such restrictions, of course, primarily hurt the athletes, who have trained for years and then are denied to be part of the wider sports community.

The IOC revived the concept of an Olympic Truce in the 1990s. UNICEF made an agreement to work with the IOC, since we had experiences with Zones of Tranquility and Corridors of Peace to get the fighting to pause and allow the vaccination and other emergency services to reach mothers and children. This Olympic Truce agreement was signed by Jim Grant and Juan Antonio Samaranch, President of the IOC, at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne and announced at a press conference at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, in February 1994. Unfortunately, Jim Grant died the following year, and the next ExDirs did not follow up on the Olympic Truce agreement. A couple of years ago, when I suggested to the Head of the Communications Department at UNICEF HQ that the present ExDir should meet the present IOC President, she simply said “we have people in Geneva who are in contact with the IOC on fundraising matters.”

Sadly, the quest for peace seemed less important.

Meanwhile, the wars continued, and then the war with Iran started. The Winter Olympics couldn't stop any fighting, People in many parts of the world, especially in Italy and Spain, protested, but had no impact.

In Valencia, Spain, the Festival of Las Fallas was being celebrated. It was a time for fun and laughter and lots of firecrackers, and big sculptures - some over 30 meters high. These Ninots, as they are called, are mostly fun or satirical, but this year two are condemning the war. A tall replica of Charlie Chaplin as a soldier, loaded with guns and mines, but in his left hand holding a colorful butterfly. It’s a reminder of Chaplin’s movie “The Great DIctator”, in which he dances with the globe of the earth in his hands and saying I want “peace” - a piece of France, a piece of Poland, etc.

The other Ninot is of a little girl wearing a steel helmet. The message for both is “No a la guerra” (No to war).

Although a fun festival, the sad part is that on the 19th of March, the feast of St.Joseph, most Ninots will be burnt, accompanied by fireworks and firecrackers.