| Published: Tuesday 1st July 2008 |
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In the run up for the Olympic games to be held next summer, the nations of the world are faced with the challenging question of how the Games can support the human rights situation in China. The Olympic Charter states that the goal of the Olympics is to place sports at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity. The Olympic committe´s justification for allotting the Peoples Republic of China the summer Olympics of 2008 was based on the conviction that doing so would be a way to press for a positive change in the country. The decision was therefore made on the precondition that human rights would finally be respected in China.
For the past few years independent international organizations as Amnesty International, Human Rights in China and Human Rights Watch have on the contrary maintained that the human rights situation in China has not improved ....but worsened. Many other organizations concerned with the matter, such as International Society for Human Rights, Reporters Without Borders, Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting, China Aid Association and Olympic Watch also support those claimes. An independent organization that investigates the persecution of Falun Gong in China (CIPFG) has protested against increased amount of human rights violations in the country. They point to crimes against peace and the Olympic Spirit, organ harvesting for profit, persecution of Christians, oppression of the Tibetian people, the suppression of the freedom to speak and sabotage of efforts to stop the genocide in Sudan´s Darfur region and the Junta´s violent crackdown on monks in Burma. Disturbed by these problems that the Chinese government has created, the organization has initiated a global Human Rights Torch Relay that began a world tour in the heart of Athens in the evening of August 9th, a year before the Olympic Games. At the initial ceremony in Athens, participants came from different corners of the world, but the series of events throughout Europe, Australia and the United States dedicated to the cause has motivated Mayors, MPs, athletes and human rights thinkers to officially express their concerns.
Besides commitments to international human rights agreements, all fundamental human rights are listed in the Constitution of The Peoples Republic of China, including freedom of expression and press, freedom for organizations and religious groups and unlawful custody without court sentence. Lawyers that try to hold the Republic responsible through the legal system when these rights are violated can, on the other hand expect duress and persecution. Gao Zhisheng, a highly respected chinese lawyer, that has been anomitated for the Nobel Peace Prize, disappeared from his home on September 22nd. Earlier this year he published the book, A China More Just - My Fight as a Rights Lawyer in Communist China and wrote a 16 page long report to the US government, an invocation to the international society, two days before his disappearance. In the name of The Human Rights Torch Australian lawyers have called for Zhisheng´s and other prisoners of conscience immediate release, also for those whose rights have been violated in the name of the Olympic Games themselves. Ye Guozhu, an organizer of peaceful protests on behalf of the 1,5 million residents of Bejing whose homes have been taken away, to be replaced by Olympic construction without fair compensation, has been imprisoned and tortured for four years and the organization suppressed.
Icelandic journalists that intend to report from the Olympic games next summer might have to accept illeagal cut of their journalistic freedom to tell the story of what is really going on in this populated country. The Chinese Communist Pary has already openly admitted that detailed personal information about all journalist that intend to visit China next summer is being collected into a database. Truth is a liberating force, but authorities that continously need to cover up for their own actions live in a repressive fear of truth, civilization and the will of the people. The work of 30.000 chinese internet policemen that ,,protect” the chinese public from informed discussion about democracy, human rights and religion is a real testimony of such fear.
At the beginning of the summer Olympics 2008 The Human Rights Torch Relay will have visited 35 countries and 150 cities, reflecting the solem spirit of the Olympic Games and their status as a symbol for human dignity and respect for life. Before media spot light will shun atheletes accomplishments in Bejing next summer, sports organizations, governments, journalists and the general public around the world has to take a stance concerning how it is possible to hinder the Olympic vision from being decisively misused. How the Olympic vision can assist a nation that is more interested in benefitting from basic human rights than the biggest sports event of the world.
Olympic Games and crimes against humanity can not coexist. The explicit stance of the Icelandic government in foreign affairs where human rights, peace and developmental aid are cornerstones will undoubtedly embrace that fact in the new year.
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