The International Olympic Committee needs to tell Beijing: concentration camps disqualify you from hosting the 2022 Games
For immediate release
November 27, 2019 3:00 pm EST
Contact: Uyghur Human Rights Project +1 (202) 478 1920
The Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) calls on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to seek an alternative location for the 2022 Winter Olympics in light of new information on the genocidal intent of China’s concentration camps for Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples.
The Olympic Charter lists as one of the movement’s goals “the preservation of human dignity.” Evidence of the Chinese government’s aim to wipe out the Uyghurs’ distinct ethno-religious identity is irrefutable and such policies would be an outrage in any country participating in the Olympic movement, much less the host country.
At the December 3-5 Executive Board Meeting in Lausanne, the IOC should declare China in violation of the Olympic Charter and inform Beijing further cooperation is not possible.
“The IOC cannot allow China to use the 2022 Olympics to ‘sportswash’ crimes against humanity. It is hard to find a more clear-cut case of a state in violation of the Olympic Charter. For the dignity of the participants and the victims of the concentration camps, a new venue for the Winter Olympics should be identified. The 1936 Games are a stain on the Olympic Movement. The 2022 Games cannot be allowed to follow suit,” said UHRP Executive Director, Omer Kanat.
Two recent leaks of official Chinese documents to the New York Times and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists provide evidence of the ideological origins, scale, and intention of the mass internment campaign in East Turkestan.
In October 2019, Dr. Kevin Carrico published a policy brief in conjunction with UHRP entitled ‘The 2022 Winter Olympics and Beijing’s Uyghur Policy: Sports in the Shadows of Concentration Camps.’ The brief calls for urgent international attention to this looming challenge for the international community and outlines actionable recommendations for the IOC, national Olympic committees and the general public.
In an October 22 op-ed, Dr. Carrico pointed out that in order to prevent the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) from “using the Games to legitimise itself, the international community needs to begin using the Games to pressure the CCP. This will require multiple layers of mobilisation, based in a broad consensus that concentration camps should have no place in the 21st century, or at the very least should not be rewarded with global mega-events.”
Take action:
Sign the “No Rights No Games” petition to urge the IOC to take urgent action to ensure the camps are closed ahead of the Olympics in 2022.