{"id":1974,"date":"2015-08-01T04:27:15","date_gmt":"2015-08-01T04:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iuhrdf.org\/en\/2015\/08\/01\/china-ensure-2022-olympics-wont-fuel-abuse\/"},"modified":"2015-08-01T04:27:15","modified_gmt":"2015-08-01T04:27:15","slug":"china-ensure-2022-olympics-wont-fuel-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/china-ensure-2022-olympics-wont-fuel-abuse\/","title":{"rendered":"China: Ensure 2022 Olympics Won\u2019t Fuel Abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>IOC\u2019s Selection Raises Massive Concerns, Challenges<\/p>\n<p>July 31, 2015<\/p>\n<p>(New York) \u2013 The International Olympic Committee (IOC), in choosing China to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, faces massive challenges in fulfilling its expressed commitment to human rights, Human Rights Watch said today. Beijing\u2019s selection was announced on July 31, 2015, at the 128th IOC Congress in Kuala Lumpur. The only other contender \u2013 Kazakhstan \u2013 also has a dismal rights record. &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Olympic motto of \u2018higher, faster, and stronger\u2019 is a perfect description of the Chinese government\u2019s assault on civil society: more peaceful activists detained in record time, subject to far harsher treatment,\u201d said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/about\/people\/sophie-richardson\">Sophie Richardson<\/a>, China director. \u201cIn choosing China to host another Games, the IOC has tripped on a major human rights hurdle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XYcS8BlpD98\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Olympic Charter requires all hosts to uphold media freedom and identifies \u201chuman dignity\u201d as essential to the Olympic movement. In December 2014, in response to international pressure generated by rights abuses in China and Russia as host countries, the IOC adopted reforms known as Olympic Agenda 2020. This includes specific requirements for host cities to ensure labor rights, uphold press freedom, prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and defend \u201chuman dignity.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The IOC\u2019s awarding of the 2022 Olympics to China is a slap in the face to China\u2019s besieged human rights activists. Over the next seven years, the IOC has enormous work to do in China to win the credibility on human rights that will ensure a successful Olympics.<br \/>\n<strong>Sophie Richardson<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>China director<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The IOC Evaluation Commission\u2019s January <a href=\"http:\/\/www.olympic.org\/Documents\/Host_city_elections\/ioc_evaluation_commission_report_sp_eng.pdf\">2015 report<\/a> on China notes that the IOC \u201creceived assurances\u201d from Chinese authorities on human rights, but failed to provide any detail. The IOC has no human rights monitoring mechanisms in place to measure a host country\u2019s respect for these rules.<\/p>\n<p>The 2008 Summer Olympics was a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2008\/08\/22\/china-hosting-olympics-catalyst-human-rights-abuses\">catalyst for human rights abuses<\/a> in a country with an already poor rights record. Human Rights Watch documented extensive human rights violations directly linked to the preparation and the hosting of the Games, including massive forced evictions, a surge in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2008\/04\/03\/china-activists-jailing-spotlights-olympics-negative-effect-rights\">arrest<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2008\/08\/13\/china-police-detain-would-be-olympic-protesters\">detention<\/a>, and harassment of critics of the government, repeated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2007\/05\/31\/china-media-freedom-under-assault-ahead-2008-olympics\">violations of media freedom<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2008\/03\/17\/china-trial-leading-activist-sham\">increased political repression<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>China\u2019s current rights environment is at its worst in the last two decades. Under President Xi Jinping, the authorities have arbitrarily detained and imprisoned hundreds of activists, and harassed and shuttered several key nongovernmental organizations. The government has renewed efforts to maintain a chokehold on expression on the Internet and in the media, and has promoted greater adherence to \u201ccorrect ideology\u201d and the supremacy of the Chinese Communist Party. It has drafted or enacted new laws that equate criticisms of the government or Communist Party as threats to state security and set up a new National Security Commission that primarily focuses on maintaining control over society.<\/p>\n<p>Human Rights Watch urges the IOC to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Immediately begin consultations with independent civil society organizations and activists from China to address their concerns about China\u2019s hosting the 2022 Games;<\/li>\n<li>Establish effective and independent monitoring mechanisms to track and report on regression on labor rights, press freedom, discrimination, and all areas where \u201cassurances\u201d were received, and commit to publicly speak out on and help ensure redress for these rights violations when they occur; and<\/li>\n<li>Publicly make clear that significant Olympics-related human rights violations will result in the ultimate sanction of relocating the 2022 Games.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cThe IOC\u2019s awarding of the 2022 Olympics to China is a slap in the face to China\u2019s besieged human rights activists,\u201d Richardson said. \u201cOver the next seven years, the IOC has enormous work to do in China to win the credibility on human rights that will ensure a successful Olympics.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IOC\u2019s Selection Raises Massive Concerns, Challenges<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-1974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1974"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=1974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}