Although the International Olympic Committee’s Executive Director, Francois Carrard admitted that there had only been one issue under discussion - human rights - supporters of the bid expressed their confidence that the Games would be a ‘force for good.’

The IOC’s new President, Jacques Rogge, said “We are convinced that the Olympic Games will improve human rights in China”. (Interview on BBC Hardtalk, 24 April 2002.)

Human Rights campaigners across the globe expressed astonishment at the decision citing the current crackdown as evidence that, if China could so blatantly abuse human rights whilst it was bidding for the Games, there was no reason to suppose that the Olympics would lead to any change, unless sustained international scrutiny and pressure was instituted along with the Games.

In the 54 years since China invaded Tibet, the direct link between international scrutiny and pressure and China’s willingness to take positive steps in the sphere of human rights has become transparently clear. Tibet Campaigners immediately contacted the IOC to convey this message and to propose that the IOC institute mechanisms, including building China’s support for the Olympic Truce, which would lead to progress in resolving difficult issues such as Tibet, Taiwan and freedom of expression. The reality, three years after Beijing was granted the Olympics, is very different.

Annual reports which assess the human rights situation in Tibet and China, and examine key issues relating to the IOC and the Olympic Games, have been produced by the International Tibet Support Network since the decision to award the Games to Beijing in 2001.

The suggestion that the Olympics would facilitate human rights improvements in China has not so far been borne out.

The one promise that China properly made, that media freedom was guaranteed, was backtracked on almost immediately. In the past two years, China has engaged in a sweeping crackdown on prominent Tibetan religious leaders, and in its handling of the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in June has provided further examples of the regime’s inability to deal with dissent. Tibet campaigners are further concerned that the Host City contract will provide Beijing with a licence for ‘zero tolerance’ of dissent.

If international scrutiny and pressure is required as motivation for China to make progress, Tibet campaigners ask where that scrutiny and pressure will come from in order to fulfil the IOC’s confident predictions?

It does not appear to be forthcoming from the IOC itself. Indeed, recent letters to supporters of Tibet suggest that the IOC has washed its hands of human rights altogether, and is not even prepared to admit that human rights in China may be an issue. “The IOC relies on recognised and competent bodies, such as the United Nations and its system, to handle related matters and to monitor the situation in those countries and areas where such issues arise. Your concern should therefore be referred to those organisations.” (Letter from IOC HQ 16 June 2004.) However, China successfully evades criticism in the annual United Nations Commission for Human Rights.

In contrast to the various measures put in place to monitor environmental issues relating to the Beijing Games, the IOC has refused to appoint human rights advisers or to carry out any monitoring of the human rights situation in China. This is despite the IOC’s Executive Director, Francois Carrard’s admission, when he opened the press conference after Beijing’s successful bid in July 2001, that human rights had been the only issue under discussion relating to Beijing’s bid.

Tibet campaigners remain opposed to China hosting the Olympic Games: the same regime that brutally oppresses the people in occupied Tibet and is responsible for executions and continued human rights violations in China, has been given by the IOC a huge opportunity to showcase themselves as respectable political leaders. Tibetans and their supporters oppose the 2008 Games in Beijing and say “no” to this lie.

The International Tibet Support Network calls on the IOC to, in the spirit of the Olympic Charter and the Olympic Truce Resolution adopted by the 54th UN General Assembly on 24 November 1999, press for peaceful, unconditional negotiations between representatives of the Dalai Lama and China on the future of Tibet.

The IOC should further establish benchmarks to determine the basis for an eventual reconsideration of the location of the 2008 Olympics in the event of a lack of improvement or further deterioration of the human rights situation in China and Tibet.

There should be no Olympics in China until Tibet is free.

www.2008-FreeTibet.org

IOC’s ‘Bet’ That 2008 Olympic Games Will Improve Human Rights in China Shows No Sign of Fulfilment