Will the IOC give human rights a sporting chance for Beijing 2008?

Free Tibet Campaign today called for human rights to top the reform agenda at the 114th session of the International Olympic Committee in Mexico City (from 25-29 November 2002). Although the meeting is scheduled to look at the reform of the Games to reduce the number of sports and the scale of the task for host cities, the bigger issue of reform in taking on human rights looks set to be ignored. Since its decision to award Beijing the 2008 Olympic Games in July 2001, the IOC has yet to demonstrate that it is doing anything to ensure that its "bet" will help improve human rights in China and Tibet whilst it hides behind its claim for 'political neutrality'. Free Tibet Campaign has written to all IOC members asking them to put human rights at the top of the IOC agenda.

Anne Callaghan of Free Tibet Campaign, speaking from Mexico City on the eve of the meeting, commented:

"The IOC must appoint human rights advisers or a committee to demonstrate that it is taking its ‘bet’ seriously for the Olympic Games to help improve the human rights situation in Tibet and China. To do otherwise would be to risk its mission to 'promote a peaceful society' and would be a wasted opportunity that it would come to regret."

Free Tibet Campaign and other members of the International Tibet Support Network put forward nine recommendations to improve human rights in Tibet and the IOC in December 2001 that sought to ensure an improvement in the human rights situation in Tibet and China. The full list can be found in a report entitled "Beijing 2008: Taking a bet on the Olympic Ideal" Download report (Please note this PDF file is approximately 1200Kb. It can be viewed in Adobe Acrobat 4.0 or later). Or view text only version.

Recommendations to the IOC in addition to appointing a human rights committee or advisers include:

• That representations be made for those activists already jailed such as Shan Chengfeng who was sentenced to two years in a labour camp in February 2001 for daring to petition the IOC for help for other democracy activists.
• That the IOC obtains a written guarantee from the Chinese authorities to ensure media freedom for all journalists.

"The IOC must learn from its past mistakes," said Ms Callaghan. "There is a strange irony being here in Mexico City to press the case for human rights in the Olympics when the Mexico Games of 1968 coincided with wide-scale protest at the then regime. The IOC's President at the time, Avery Brundage threatened to withdraw the Games from the city if protests did not stop. Troops were sent in and it is estimated that between 100 to 325 students were killed and thousands arrested just ten days before the Games commenced. The IOC must ensure that history is not repeated in Beijing."

Notes:

Nine recommendations were made to the IOC in December 2001 and are listed below:

1. That a written guarantee be sought from the Chinese authorities stipulating that Chinese citizens and Tibetans will not be arrested for voicing dissent or any other public opinions about the Olympic Games in the run-up to, during and in the aftermath of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

2. That representations be made demanding the immediate release of those Chinese citizens already arrested for actions related to the Beijing bid. Most notably Shan Chengfeng, sentenced to two years in labour camp.

3. That a written guarantee be sought from the Chinese authorities stipulating that the local and international media will have full and free access to China and Tibet in the run-up to and during the Olympic Games. Wang Wei, Secretary-General of the Beijing bid committee, was quoted in the China Daily in July 2001 as stating that "the world's media will enjoy full freedom to report on all aspects of China if the 2008 Olympic Games is held in the city".

4. That sports stadiums where ritual public humiliation and executions of alleged criminals have taken place be ruled out of the site plans for the Beijing Olympic Games.

5. That a code of conduct be drawn up to guide IOC members, officials and sponsors in their role in the period running up to the Games and during the Games to prevent the IOC becoming a propaganda pawn for the Chinese authorities.

6. That a mechanism for raising human rights abuses carried out by the Chinese authorities explicitly in the name of providing a "better Olympics" be established. These abuses may include arrests, detentions, torture or ill-treatment of those protesting about Beijing's preparations for the Games; coercion in Tibet or China in order to promote the Olympic Games; security crackdowns in Tibet in the name of security and "fighting terrorism".

7. That a mechanism for regular consultation and a channel of communication with human rights advisers and NGOs, including the International Tibet Support Network (ITSN), be established, that enables the IOC to keep itself up-to-date with human rights violations in Tibet and China.

8. That benchmarks be set by the IOC to determine the basis for an eventual reconsideration of the location of the 2008 Olympics in the event of a lack of improvement or further deterioration of the human rights situation in China and Tibet.

9. That the case of Gendun Choekyi Nyima, the 11th Panchen Lama of Tibet, be taken up by the IOC with the Chinese authorities. The Panchen Lama, one of the most senior figures in Tibetan Buddhism, was last seen in public in 1995. Despite repeated calls from the UN and governments around the world for information on his whereabouts and condition, the Chinese authorities have so far failed to respond. The case of the Panchen Lama is one of the central issues of the Tibet-China conflict. In the spirit of the Olympic Charter and the Olympic Truce Resolution adopted by the 54th UN General Assembly on 24 November 1999, the IOC should use the opportunity of the Olympic Games to press for independently verifiable information about the Panchen Lama.

(The 1999 UN resolution, co-sponsored by 180 member states, including the People's Republic of China, urges member states to "abide by the Olympic Truce, individually and collectively, and to pursue, in conformity with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, the peaceful settlement).

"Beijing 2008: Taking a bet on the Olympic Ideal" Download report
(Please note this PDF file is approximately 1200Kb. It can be viewed in Adobe Acrobat 4.0 or later).