RUSSIA: WINTER OLYMPICS - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon addresses gay rights issue and Syria at IOC congress in Sochi

Record ID: 564897

  • Title: RUSSIA: WINTER OLYMPICS - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon addresses gay rights issue and Syria at IOC congress in Sochi
  • Date: 6th February 2014
  • Summary: SOCHI, RUSSIA (FEBRUARY 6, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE (IOC)
  • Embargoed: 21st February 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Russian Federation
  • Country: Russia
  • Topics: General,Politics,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA4UX0YCXPKPKQA4B4CXE4CWNT6
  • Story Text: In the first address by a United Nations secretary general to an International Olympic Committee (IOC) session, Ban Ki-moon condemned discrimination and attacks on people based on their sexual orientation on Thursday (February 6).
    Speaking on the eve of the February 7-23 Sochi Games opening ceremony, Ban said that hatred of any kind must have no place in the 21st century.
    Russia, hosting a winter Games for the first time, has come under mounting criticism since the government passed an anti-gay propaganda law last year which critics say curtails rights of homosexuals and discriminates against them.
    "We must all raise our voices against attacks on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex people," Ban told the IOC session in the Black Sea resort on Thursday.
    "We must oppose the arrests, imprisonments and discriminatory restrictions they face."
    Russian President Vladimir Putin has defended the law as protecting minors and has said homosexuals will not be discriminated against during the Sochi Olympics.
    Ban said sport had the power to further human rights but made no specific reference to the controversial law in Russia or the country itself.
    "I hope that these Olympics will be the venue where all the people, regardless of their sexual orientation, LGBT, all these people will really be able to enjoy the harmony and friendship and mutual respect and compete in the spirit of the Olympic movement. That's what the Russian government is committed to so and that's what I am assured by President Putin," Ban said.
    Sochi Games officials have said protests to oppose the law had no place in the city during the Olympics.
    Asked about the situation in Syria, after calling on all warring parties in the world to uphold a truce during the Olympics, Ban said he was confident that the final target for the Syrian government to destroy chemical weapons would be met.
    "Our target is June 30 this year. This may be a very tight target but I believe that it can be done and with the full support of the Syrian government I expect that they will do it and also full logistical and political support from many countries," he said.
    Syria on Wednesday (February 5) missed a deadline to hand over all the toxic materials it declared to the world's chemical weapons watchdog, putting the programme several weeks behind schedule and jeopardizing the final June 30 deadline.
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