The Belgian Olympic Committee's recent announcement that it would prohibit its athletes from making political comments at Olympic venues has been described as "appalling" by human rights groups.
Last week Belgium's Olympic committee issued a statement saying, "Not a single participant in the Games will be allowed to give a political opinion at the Olympic venues." Nor could athletes wear any distinctive insignia protesting China's human rights violations. [Note: Belgian athletes will be permitted to give interviews during their free time, and outside of official Olympic venues.]
"It is a terrible shame that the country that hosts the European Union has taken this action," said Michael Craig, chair of the China Rights Network, a coalition of 11 rights organizations that includes Amnesty International and Students for a Free Tibet.
"When governments or sports bodies fail to speak up about human rights in China and then go there and treat the situation as though it's completely normal they are in fact endorsing human right abuses and repression. So that, in fact, is what I think the Belgian government is doing," said Craig. [Note: the Belgian government is in no way involved; the Belgian Olympic Committee issued the ruling.]
Craig equated the Belgian Olympic Committee's move to suppress its athletes' freedom of speech to the Canadian Olympic Committee's and International Olympic Committee's refusal to hold China to the promises it made to improve human rights if granted the Olympics.
"To my mind the IOC has an obligation to challenge China because China made all these promises in order to get the Games—and China obviously has not followed through on those promises."
The China Rights Network sent a letter to Canada's own Olympic committee last November asking that it "explore ways in which we, as Canadians, can engage China to take advantage of hosting the 2008 Olympic Games to improve human rights in China."
The committee never replied.
Amnesty International is among the human rights groups that have indicated the human rights situation has actually deteriorated in many ways since China was granted the Olympics.
Two areas of backsliding have been the increased persecution of human rights defenders and journalists. In one report, Amnesty International said the government introduced legislation that would increase the freedom of foreign journalists but that this was done "against a background of increased official controls over the distribution of foreign news within China and a renewed crackdown on domestic journalism, including print, broadcast and online media."
Olympic Watch spokesperson Peter Kutilek said that the crackdown on media is "a most distressing issue," given that Beijing promised complete media freedom by the time of the Olympics.
"That's something that the International Olympic Committee, national Olympic committees, Olympic sponsors and athletes have the right and responsibility to speak about and they should," said Kutilek.
Kutilek also condemned the Belgian Olympic Committee's intention to censor athletes.
"It is certainly sad when anyone tries to limit the freedom of speech, whether it's the Chinese government or the Olympic committee."
But Kutilek said Belgian athletes need not stop themselves from speaking on human rights issues because those topics do not fall within the arena of "political opinion" that the Belgian Olympic Committee has prohibited the athletes from speaking about while involved in official Olympic activities.
"Human rights are not a political issue," he said. "Human rights are something outside and beyond politics and the athletes and the Olympic committees should speak about their concerns about human rights being violated in China, especially in relation to the Olympic Games."
"We're not saying what party should rule China, we're just saying human rights need to be respected in China and human dignity needs to be respected in China. Human dignity is one of the key Olympic values. If human dignity is not respected in China then athletes have the right and responsibility to speak out about it."
Kutilek added that it is particularly important for Olympic committees and athletes to speak out on human rights violations directly connected to the Olympics, such as the massive number of forced evictions that have taken place in Beijing so that Olympic venues or related businesses could be built.
"These cases should be highlighted by the Olympians themselves," said Kutilek.
Meanwhile the Canadian and United States Olympic committees have both said they will not follow Belgium's example and will not put any restrictions on what their athletes can and cannot say in relation to China.
But while Canada and the U.S. will not follow Belgium's lead, Human Rights Watch has said it is concerned other national Olympic committees may follow suit.
Edward McMillan-Scott, a British politician and European Parliament vice president, was disappointed when he heard of Belgium's move.
"This is part of the sad capitulation by governments around the world to China's economic weight," he said.
"Most human beings recognize that China is also the world's worst tyranny. The Olympic Games offered China the chance of reform but this has been replaced by a massive crackdown on all forms of dissent including religious expression."
McMillan-Scott, who previously called for Britain to boycott the Olympics said, "We will be appealing to the Belgian Parliament for an urgent debate on the [Olympic committee's] decision."
Feeds