Over hundred Human rights groups ask IOC to move 2022 Olympics from China, announces Global Day of Action on PRC’s 71st founding anniversary

DHARAMSALA, 9 Sept: A coalition of over hundred human rights groups representing Tibet, Uyghur, Southern Mongolian, Hongkonger, Taiwanese, and Chinese people, along with other international human rights organisations have urged “the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to reverse its mistake in awarding Beijing the honour of hosting the Winter Olympic Games in 2022.”

Dharamsala based Tibetan NGOs such as Tibetan Youth Congress, Tibetan Women’s Association, Gu-Chu-Sum Movement Association of Tibet, National Democratic Party of Tibet, Students for a Free Tibet-India and International Tibet Network who were part of the coalition announced today at a press conference that the IOC President Thomas Bach was presented with their joint letter demanding to move Olympics from China.

“As a member of the IOC in the period 2001 to 2008, you will no doubt recall the extensive dialogue human rights campaigners held with your Presidential predecessor, Jacques Rogge, and senior IOC staff over the controversial decision to award Beijing the 2008 Summer Olympic Games,” read the joint letter addressed to Bach.

The activists have declared IOC’s decision with ‘mistaken belief that the 2008 Olympics would work to improve China’s human rights record’ as a failure and added that the decision has indelibly tarnished IOC’s reputation.

The group has further listed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “gross increase on the assault on communities living under its rule: the construction of an Orwellian surveillance state in occupied Tibet, the incarceration of between 1.8 to 3 million Uyghurs, the recent demolition of ‘One Country Two Systems in Hong Kong that breach multiple international laws and the UN Declaration of Human Rights,’ the erasure of Southern Mongolian culture and language, the ongoing military intimidation and geopolitical bullying of Taiwan, and the detention, disappearance and death of countless Chinese lawyers, feminists, democracy activists, and anyone else deemed a threat by the Chinese Communist Party,” as it appeals for the leading international sporting events be held outside China. 

On the IOC’s decision to award 2022 Winter Olympics Game to China in spite of objections and concerns form the frontline communities and human rights groups, the letter states that “the IOC has repeated the same mistakes as the past and remained unresponsive to evidence of the sharp decline in human rights protections before and after the 2008 Games in Beijing; evidence that illustrates that the 2022 Games will also have no positive impact on China’s adherence to human rights standards, and could even contribute to more repression.”

The coalition has also stated that “IOC must recognize that the Olympic spirit and the reputation of the Olympic Games will suffer further damage if the worsening human rights crisis, across all areas under China’s control, is simply ignored.”

Additionally, the group has requested Bach and IOC Committee Members to meet with coalition representatives to discuss their “serious concerns” and seek IOC’s  “assurances” to revoke their decision to allow Beijing to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

Though the Tibetan activists have previously failed in their similar campaign urging the IOC to move the 2008 summer Olympics out of China, TYC President Gonpo Dhondup said that the global geopolitics has changed today with China originated COVID-19 pandemic that the world continues to battle coupling with the world waking up to China’s expansionist design and China’s gross violation of human rights and that the participation of the global coalition makes it all the more different.

Calling their letter to the IOC the beginning of their campaign, He vowed to continue until their demand is met.

Meanwhile, Tibetan NGOs announced a “Resist Chinese Communist Party: Global Day of Action” on 1 October 2020, coupling with the 71st founding anniversary of PRC. 

“From Sydney to Washington DC, Taiwan to London, Dharamsala to Mexico City, protests are being planned in at least fifty cities across the world,” the group announced and urged “call Tibetans and Tibet supporters around the world to join the ‘Global Day of Action’ as a united movement against Chinese Communist Party.

SFT led the efforts to create this new global united movement against the CCP as China’s crackdown against freedom, democracy, and human rights has intensified across China and the countries it occupies.