NEARLY 200 RIGHTS GROUPS CALL FOR BOYCOTT OF BEIJING OLYMPICS OVER HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE

Wed 03 February 2021:

A union of 180 rights groups on Wednesday called for a boycott of Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, over China’s human rights abuses of it’s ethnic minorities.

The coalition is composed of groups representing Tibetans, Uighurs, Inner Mongolians, residents of Hong Kong and others.

The group has issued an open letter to governments calling for a boycott of the Olympics “to ensure they are not used to embolden the Chinese government’s appalling rights abuses and crackdowns on dissent.”

Rights groups have previously asked the Switzerland-based International Olympic Committee (IOC) to move the games from China. The IOC has largely ignored the demands and says it is only a sporting body that does not get involved with politics.

The groups said because of the IOC’s inaction “it now 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 situation of the Uighurs in northwestern China has received most of the attention. Beijing hosted the 2008 Olympics, which it promised would improve human rights in the country. Instead, the groups say the prestige of the Olympics has led to “a gross increase on the assault on communities living under its rule.”

In recent years, international rights groups and Western governments, including the U.S., have condemned China’s increased systematic repression against the Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.

They say the repression includes the internment of more than 1 million Uighurs in detention camps, forced sterilization of women, coerced labor, surveillance of people’s movement, banning the Uighur language and forcing people to abandon their religion.

China denies international observers access to Xinjiang, while describing its internment facilities as “vocational training centers” aimed at educating Uighurs in order to “counter terrorism and alleviate poverty.”