Rights groups slam top IOC official’s stance on Beijing

by AFP | Khaleeij Times Online
July 13, 2007

GENEVA - Two human rights groups on Friday sharply criticised a senior Olympic official who warned social activists not to use the Beijing 2008 Games to highlight their concerns.

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) said the remarks by the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) chief Beijing organiser, Hein Verbruggen, repudiated the Olympic movement’s own ideal and its Code of Ethics.

‘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 to ‘take steps to negate’ human rights agendas, may serve to embolden the Chinese authorities who already systematically oppress human rights defenders,’ the groups said in a statement.

‘The statement will certainly further endanger the already precarious personal security of these individuals,’ they added.

The human rights and anti-torture groups said the Games were ‘a force for good’ thanks to Olympic movement’s ethical principles, which say that ‘safeguarding the dignity of the individual is a fundamental requirement of Olympism.’

The FIDH and OMCT told Verbruggen they were ‘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’.’

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