Why Athletes Need To Keep Mum Over Human Rights At Winter Olympics?

China – After the wide level diplomatic boycott, athletes are being asked not to speak up about human rights at the forthcoming Winter Olympics at Beijing. This was a point of focus at the Human Rights Watch seminar. The world has been systematically boycotting China for its treatment of minority groups in China.

New Zealand, UK, Australia, France, The United States are a few countries that had announced a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics to be held in February. HRW is advising athletes to focus on their games only, for their own personal safety, a formal statement by the agency has confirmed.

Related Posts

A Worker Exploited In Gisborne; Modern-Day Slavery At Its Peak

Australia: Worker scheme ‘rife with abuse’

Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics: Athletes Complain About Strict Covid-19 Measures ‘Violating Human Rights’

Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics: China cracks down on dissent ahead of Olympics

Corruption And Human Rights Abuses Increased Across The World Amid Covid-19: Transparency International Ranking

Demand for prisoners rights arise as China witness forced labor

EHRC Might Lose It’s ‘A’ Status Over Comment On GRA In Scotland

Human Rights violations hidden by Facebook highlight employees

Hungary: More Than 20,000 Teachers Took Part In The Warning Strike; Teacher’s Basic Salaries Have Not Increased Since 2014

Migrant workers in Australia: exploited, suffered yet silenced

New Zealand Loses Medical Practitioners To Other Countries Over Migration Rules

New Zealand Open To Migrant Workers To Support Dairy Labor Shortage

Taiwan Ignores Repatriation Of Vietnamese Migrants

Taiwan: Uproar in the nation as migrant workers demand job changes

US imposed strict sanctions on Myanmar, China, North Korea on human rights grounds

Uyghur community finally take a stand for themselves with a complaint against Xi Jinping

Visa restriction keep migrant workers stuck out of New Zealand in harsh realities

“There’s really not much protection that we believe is going to be afforded to athletes,” Rob Koehler, the director general of the Global Athlete group, said in the seminar. “Silence is complicity and that’s why we have concerns. So, we’re advising athletes not to speak up. We want them to compete and use their voice when they get home.” Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter states that “no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas”.

China has vehemently continued to deny any wrongdoing. Protests worldwide are terming the Winter Olympics as ‘genocide games’ and seeking mass boycott. Even Denmark is said to have recently decided to join European nations in boycotting the winter Olympics.  The White House has made it official that it would not send any official or diplomatic representatives to the Winter Games and Paralympics in February, “given the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China’s] ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses.” Athletes are also being warned to carefully use their smartphones as a recently launched app by China to check the health of athletes might lead to data infringement as well.