Human rights and the Olympic Movement after Beijing

Abstract

It was the Olympic Movement and the IOC, not China, which received the harshest criticism for the abuse of human rights and athletes' rights during the year of the Beijing Olympics. The IOC appeared complicit in the Chinese Government's crackdown on open protest and public dissent, and it contributed to a deep chill among athletes and coaches before and during the Games. It suffered serious blows to its moral authority and legitimacy as a humanitarian organization as a result. This essay places the human rights debates precipitated by the Beijing Olympics in the context of Olympic history, and discusses their implications for the future of the Olympic Movement. I argue that while the IOC never previously made adherence to human rights a monitored standard for admission into the Olympic Movement, nor a condition for staging its Games, it should now do so, and will recommend several measures that should be taken.

Notes

¹ ‘China: The Olympics Countdown – Broken Promises’. Amnesty International (AI), August 30, 2008. http://www.amnesty.org/en/china-olympics; ‘China: Olympics Harm Key Human Rights’. Human Rights Watch (HRW), August 6, 2008. http://china.hrw.org/press;) ‘China: As Paralympics Launch, Disabled Face Discrimination’. HRW, September 5, 2008. http://china.hrw.org/press. For one journalist's account, see Vicki Hall, ‘Hitting the Wall in China: Media Covering the Beijing Olympics were Promised Complete Freedom, But the Reality was Something Different – and a lot Scarier’, Edmonton Journal, September 28, 2008.

² AI, ‘China’, 16–17.

³ HRW, ‘China: As Paralympics Launch, Disabled Face Discrimination’. September 5, 2008. http://china.hrw.org/press/news_release/china_as_paralympics_launch_disabled_face_discrimination.

⁴ R. Juilliart, ‘Freedom of Expression is a Human Right’, April 10, 2008. http://www.olympic.org/uk/news/olympic_news/full_story_uk.asp?id = 2535; G. Kingston, ‘“Shut Up or Stay Home”, Pound tells Athletes: Olympians who Speak Out in Beijing “Will be Excluded”’, Vancouver Sun, April 12, 2008; N. Mulvenney, ‘Athletes Want Guidance on Freedom to Speak in Beijing’. http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKPEK13287020080408.

⁵ Associated Press, ‘China revokes ex-speedskater Joey Cheek's Visa’, August 6, 2008. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26047166.

⁶ AI, ‘China’.

⁷ R. Mickleburgh, ‘Politics Unravels Aboriginal Athlete's Plan to Wear Traditional Garb’, Globe and Mail, August 19, 2008.

⁸ Associated Press, ‘Italy praises athletes' human rights gestures’, International Herald Tribune, August 24, 2008. http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id = 22617&article = Italy+praises+athletes'+human+rights+gestures&t = 1&c = 1.

⁹ France 24, ‘Athlete marks first protest action over Tibet’, June 1, 2009. http://observers.france24.com; S. Oster, ‘A Hairless gesture of … something’, China Realtime Report, August 20, 2008. https://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx.

¹⁰ Kingston, ‘“Shut Up or Stay Home”’.

¹¹ HRW, ‘China: Olympic Sponsors Ignore Human Rights Abuses’, September 9, 2008. http://china.hrw.org/press/news_release/china_olympic_sponsors_ignore_human_rights_abuses.

¹² ‘A Black Eye for the IOC’, National Post, August 1, 2008; ‘Beijing Olympics Tainted by Censorship’, Globe and Mail, July 31, 2008; ‘Silent Protests’, Maclean's, September 8, 2008.

¹³ Lee, ‘Earthquake Changed Canada's Mind on Olympic Boycott – Pound’.

¹⁴ Kidd, ‘Montreal 1976’, 194.

¹⁵ AI, ‘2008 Annual Report for USA’, May 30, 2009. http://www.amnestyusa.org/annualreport.php?id = ar&yr = 2008&c = USA.

¹⁶ United Nations General Assembly, ‘Sport for Peace and Development: Building a Peaceful and Better World Through Sport and the Olympic Ideal’. October 31, 2007. http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_1247.pdf.

¹⁷ Arbena, ‘Mexico City 1968’, 175–6.

¹⁸ Cf. Hoberman, The Olympic Crisis; S. Brunt, ‘Power and Might’, Globe and Mail, August 2, 2008.

¹⁹ By 2004, the number of teams had grown to 201 while the number without women had dropped to nine, but with only 12 of 112 members, the organization is still a long way from parity at the key leadership level; see Chappelet and Kubler-Mabbott, The International Olympic Committee, 22, 81.

²⁰ Mallon, ‘The IOC Bribery Scandal’, 11–27.

²¹ IOC, Olympic Charter (2007), February 11, 2010, 14–15. http://www.olympic.org/Documents/Olympic%20Charter/Charter_en_2010.pdf

²² Berlioux, ‘The History of the International Olympic Committee’.

²³ IOC, Olympic Charter (2007), February 11, 2010, 29. http://www.olympic.org/Documents/Olympic%20Charter/Charter_en_2010.pdf

²⁴ Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, ‘Rogge says Bolt should “Show more respect”’, August 21, 2008. http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/athletics/story/2008/08/21/olympics-athletics-roggebolt.html

²⁵ MacAloon, Intercultural Education, 21.

²⁶ United Nations Development Program, Current History, 229.

²⁷ Welsh, ‘From Right to Responsibility’; see also International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, Responsibility to Protect.

²⁸ Commission on Human Security, Human Security Now, 4; Bajpai, ‘The Idea of Human Security’.

²⁹ Clarkson, ‘Broadening and Deepening’.

³⁰ Commission on Human Security, Human Security Now, 4.

³¹ International Olympic Committee, ‘Report by the IOC 2000 Commission to the 110th IOC Session’. Lausanne, December 11–12, 1999. http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_588.pdf, 14–19.

³² Van Wynsberghe, ‘The Olympic Games’; Vancouver Winter Olympic and Paralympic Organizing Committee ‘Sustainability and Aboriginal Participation’. 2010. http://www.vancouver2010.com/en/sustainability-and-aboriginal-parti/-/31640/toq5zj/index.html.

³³ City of Chicago, ‘Memorandum of Understanding’. March 2009. http://www.chicago2016.org/Portals/0/WhyChicago_OurPlan/MOU%20FINAL.pdf.