Tibetans join global coalition of 180 rights groups, call for boycott of Beijing 2022 Winter Games

  

DHARAMSALA, 3 Feb: Leading Tibetan NGOs today declared that hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, legitimises China’s human rights abuses as they called on governments around the world to boycott the Olympics as their plea to the IOC to move the games fell before deaf ears.

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 and Students for a Free Tibet-India are now part of a coalition of 180 rights groups across the world representing Tibet, Uyghur, Southern Mongolian, Hongkonger, Taiwanese, and Chinese people, along with other international human rights organisations that call for the boycott of Beijing 2022 Winter Games.

“Hosting the games in a country committing genocide, ethnic cleansing, and occupation is akin to legitimizing these crimes. China’s crackdowns against freedom, democracy, and human rights have intensified across China and the countries it occupies,” the NGOs stated in their joint statement.

The coalition has previously appealed the IOC to move the games and the group has maintained in their statement that their representatives have “met with the 1OC to urge them to act, but the IOC has refused to even denounce the crimes occurring in China let alone move the games.”

The NGO’s cited the IOC’s feigning indifference towards China’s heinous crimes against humanity and added that “the responsibility to hold China accountable for its reprehensible human rights abuses falls on activists and governments.”

“With the IOC refusing to act, after being made well aware of all the atrocities listed above, it falls on governments to take a stand and demonstrate that they have the political will to push back against China’s reprehensible human rights abuses,” the statement added.

The Tibetan NGOs further listed China’s intensified crackdown on “the voices demanding human rights and freedom not only in Tibet but also across China and its occupied countries” under Xi’s watch and concluded by urging the governments around the world to boycott the Beijing 2022 Games and stand in solidarity with Tibetans, Uyghurs, Hong Kongers, Southern Mongolia, Taiwanese and Chinese democracy activists.

With the games set to be held in China exactly after a year, the NGOs kicked off the countdown with a street action campaign here at Mcleod Ganj’s main square where they hung five blood-soaked effigies in each of the five interlaced rings of the Olympic symbol representing Tibet,  East Turkistan, Hong Kong, Southern Mongolia and  Taiwan.

The coalition has jointly penned an open letter calling on governments to commit to a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games to ensure they are not used to embolden the Chinese government’s appalling rights abuses and crackdowns on dissent.

The Tibetan NGOs previously declared IOC’s decision with a ‘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 2008 Summer Olympics was held in Beijing with China’s promise to improve its human rights record, a promise that China ignored gravely.

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