OLYMPICS-2022/BEIJING-HUMAN RIGHTS Olympics-Rights groups slam decision to give Beijing Winter Games

Record ID: 145572

  • Title: OLYMPICS-2022/BEIJING-HUMAN RIGHTS Olympics-Rights groups slam decision to give Beijing Winter Games
  • Date: 31st July 2015
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRESIDENT OF THE TIBETAN YOUTH ASSOCIATION IN EUROPE, TENZIN DECHEN, SAYING: "We are devastated and we are very troubled because Beijing winning the Olympic Games, it sends the wrong message, to the wrong people at the wrong time." TIBETAN ACTIVISTS HOLDING TIBETAN FLAG AND BANNER WITH HANDCUFFS REPRESENTING THE OLYMPIC RINGS WITH SIGN READING (Englis
  • Embargoed: 15th August 2015 13:00
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  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA92HB1SIUOSP6MJM6P5BWBIO23
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Human rights activists on Friday (July 31) criticised the decision to award Beijing the 2022 Winter Olympics, saying the International Olympic Committee had sent the wrong message at a time of growing government pressure on activists and civil society.
    Campaigners say human rights have deteriorated markedly in China since Beijing held the 2008 Summer Games. The last two years under President Xi Jinping's administration have been marked by a sweeping crackdown on dissidents, activists and human rights lawyers.
    Beijing beat the Kazakh city of Almaty to win the 2022 Winter Olympics, after all the other cities which had considered bids, like Oslo, dropped out.
    "The International Olympic Committee has just awarded Beijing the 2022 Winter Games at a time of the worst crack down on human rights in China in more than two decades," said Human Rights Watch spokesperson Minky Worden.
    "Activists and lawyers have been locked up, independent media has been shut down, and the great firewall of China, the internet censorship that the country's so famous for is worse than over. Human Rights Watch research has shown that when you award a mega sporting event like the Olympics to a repressive government like China or Russia you will absolutely exacerbate whatever existing human rights there are," added Worden.
    Worden said her organisation documented multiple human rights abuse when China stage the summer Games in 2008.
    "The IOC should not want to see a replay of these egregious human rights violations. It's time for the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic movement to insist that China play by the rules. We don't want to see another Olympics tarnished by ugly human rights abuses," she added.
    Six groups which opposed Beijing's bid appealed to the IOC ahead of the decision, urging it not to award Beijing the Games.
    Speaking on Thursday (July 30) evening, IOC president Thomas Bach said the committee had been speaking to a wide range of groups, including Human Rights Watch, but that outside the context of the Games, the IOC had to respect the laws of sovereign states.
    China has long argued that it is unfairly singled out for criticism of its rights record and says other governments should examine their own records before making accusations.
    The Beijing 2022 Bid Committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but said this week that sport should be kept separate from politics.
    China's Foreign Ministry also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
    Tibetan activists have been particularly incensed by Beijing's bid for the Games.
    A handful of actvists staged a small protest outside the IOC headquarters in Lausanne on Friday.
    "We are devastated and we are very troubled because Beijing winning the Olympic Games, it sends the wrong message, to the wrong people at the wrong time," said Tenzen Dechen, the President of the Tibetan Youth Association in Europe.
    China says it "peacefully liberated" Tibet in 1950 and its rule has brought development to a poverty-struck region.
    Exiles and rights groups say Beijing rules Tibet with an iron fist and tramples on the people's cultural and religious rights.
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