The Observatory is greatly preoccupied with the impact that your statement may have on the situation of human rights defenders in China. Your questioning of those who use the Olympic Games as a platform on which to advocate human rights, as well as your calling upon the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) to “take steps to negate” human rights agendas, may serve to embolden the Chinese authorities who already systematically oppress human rights defenders. The statement will certainly further endanger the already precarious personal security of these individuals.
The Observatory agrees wholeheartedly with your opinion that the Olympic Games is “a force for good”. That good is realised in large part through the importance afforded to fundamental ethical principles, as defined in Article A-1 of the Olympic Charter’s Code of Ethics. Given the importance of these principles in the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s governing documents, the Observatory is alarmed to hear your statement that the “agendas” of organisations based on these principles have no place in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and must be “negated”. In our opinion, actions taken in the “spirit of humanism, fraternity, and respect for individuals”, which inspires the Olympic ideal, can never be characterised as “regrettable”.
Contrary to your belief in the separation between political and social agendas and the Olympic Games, the Olympic Charter clearly recognises the strong relationship between the two. To that extent, the Observatory reminds you of Principle 2 of the Charter that declares the goal of Olympism to “place sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity”. Moreover, Article A-1 of the Code of Ethics states that “safeguarding the dignity of the individual is a fundamental requirement of Olympism”.
It is in the light of the principles which inspire the Olympic ideal that the Observatory would like to draw your attention to the very serious human rights violations perpetrated on a daily basis in China. The Observatory emphasises paragraph E-1 of the Code of Ethics which “requires the governments of countries that host the Olympic Games to undertake that their countries will scrupulously respect the fundamental principles of the Olympic Charter and the present code”. While the Observatory notes that the Chinese government has made such an undertaking, real progress has not been made. In contravention of the Code of Ethics requirements for the preservation of human dignity, for example, China continues to carry out between 8,000 and 10,000 executions each year and the practice of torture remains widespread. In contravention of the prohibition on discrimination contained in Principle 5 of the Code of Ethics, the Chinese authorities violate the rights of ethnic minorities.
The Observatory calls on you to clarify that the situation of human right defenders in China cannot be imperilled in the name of the Games. The International Olympic Committee should declare publicly its support for the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 9, 1998, and in particular Article 1 which provides that “everyone has the right, individually or in association with others, to promote and strive for the protection and the realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international level”. In advancing human rights in China at this time, the Observatory supports the campaign initiated by the French Platform “China Olympic Games 2008 - 8 Requirements for Beijing”, composed of nine human rights Non-Governmental Organisations, which promotes eight specific measures that fulfil the engagements undertaken by Chinese authorities before the IOC.
In the hope that you will take these considerations into account,
Yours sincerely,
Souhayr Belhassen , FIDH President
Eric SOTTAS, OMCT Director