Russia bows to pressure on wording of Olympic truce and embraces gays
After pressure from some UN nations, Olympic statement is amended and calls for inclusion
Every two years, the UN adopts a resolution called the Olympic truce, a perfunctory statement that invokes the ancient Greeks and celebrates friendly competition and "the cause of peace".
It usually passes with little deliberation, but not this year.
While world leaders grappled with the crisis unfolding in Syria, a lesser debate was unfolding over the truce, which was drafted by Russia and became the latest example of the complicated politics engulfing next year's Sochi Winter Games.
The controversy was over a rough draft of the truce that mentioned a promise to include "people of different age, sex, physical capacity, religion, race and social status", according to documents viewed by The New York Times. It made no mention of gay or transgender people, a particularly sensitive omission given the uproar over a Russian law that has been criticised as anti-gay.
UN representatives from around the world spent weeks pushing Russia to amend the language to include gay people, according to interviews with representatives from eight countries.
Last week, after extensive negotiations, Russia altered the truce's language to say that it would "promote social inclusion without discrimination of any kind".