Human Rights Watch Urges IOC to Wake up to Reality in China (Commentary)

Finally, someone noticed the elephant in the room. Finally, someone went to the source of this embarrassing drama called the Beijing Olympics. Who gave China this unique opportunity to showcase the fruits of its repression after repeated opportunities to say, thanks, but no thanks?

That's the International Olympic Committee, who's done as much to legitimize the Chinese regime in the eyes of the international community as just about anyone else. Now this monster is about to come to life, and, no matter how much makeup the Chinese government is trying to put on it, the monster is getting uglier and uglier by the day.

And the world is noticing. Human Rights Watch has sent an open letter to Youssoupha Ndiaye, chairman of the IOC’s Ethic Commission, calling into question the Committee’s whistling past the graveyard of the Tibet crack down and other human rights violations in China.

“We are deeply concerned about the official position on human rights articulated by the executive body of the Olympic movement: that respect for human rights is in essence a political matter that falls outside of its mandate,” says the letter signed by HRW’s Executive Director Kenneth Roth.

The IOC may think turning a blind eye to China’s abysmal human rights record is its prerogative. But HRW, and the rest of the international human rights community, is keeping tabs, as follows:

“Jailing on charges of subversion advocates who dare criticize the Olympics;
"Massive uncompensated forced evictions to make way for the construction of Olympic sites and related infrastructures;
“Systematic and uncorrected abuses of construction workers’ labor rights, including denial of any remuneration and access to basic health care;
“Sweeps of the poorest and most vulnerable groups from Beijing, including petitioners, vagrants, beggars and other marginalized communities; and
“Pervasive practical restrictions on foreign media, in contravention of specific commitments made to the IOC in 2001. In addition, as of today foreign media are barred from freely accessing Tibetan areas.”

The letter also reminds us the IOC’s shameful attitude after the brutal repression in Tibet and other regions of China.

“In response to international calls for IOC intervention in the wake of the Tibetan protests, IOC President Jacques Rogge said that he would only conduct ‘silent diplomacy’ with the Chinese government.”

Roth also reminds the IOC that its disregard for the tragedy in Tibet “may have emboldened that government to reject any scrutiny by the international community of rights violations, including the on-going large-scale, military-backed suppression in Tibetan areas of Tibet, Qinghai and Sichuan provinces, which have led to hundreds of detentions.”

The letter correctly points out that such neglect of the repressive actions of a country that is about to host the world’s most prestigious sports event constitutes a betrayal of the IOC’s very core beliefs of “respect for universal, fundamental ethical principles,” which are part of the Olympic Charter.

Roth’s letter finally urges the IOC to take the following steps:

“Articulate the ethical obligations of the Olympic movement with respect to human rights in line with the values and principles enshrined in the Olympic Charter;
“Examine the extent to which Beijing has fulfilled its commitments to the IOC when bidding for the Games;
“Recommend a course of action to the IOC regarding Hu Jia and Yang Chunlin, the two critics of the Beijing Olympics who have been jailed under state security charges;
“Consider the implications of the Chinese government’s failure to uphold its commitment to allow unrestricted media access ahead of the Games; and
“Alert the IOC to the existence of serious risks of human rights abuses around the Games, particularly on issues where Chinese government policies are in conflict with international law, such as the right to demonstrate, worship, or impart information, and recommend a course of action.”

We commend HRW’s valiant effort to put the IOC under pressure to meet basic standards of human decency, but sadly we are not holding our breath.