Contact is taking a holiday!

Chemi Lhamo and Golog Jigme
Photo: Free Tibet

Protest in Switzerland
Tibetans and Tibet supporters staged a protest outside the International Olympic Committee (IOC) headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland on Friday 26 November, holding a “mock funeral” for the IOC. The protest was led by United Kingdom-based Free Tibet in collaboration with the Tibetan Youth Association in Europe and the local Canton de Vaud Swiss Tibetan Friendship Association. It was staged as part of the No Beijing 2022 campaign, a coordinated campaign with a coalition of over 200 global rights groups that are calling for a boycott of Beijing 2022.

The protestors say that the IOC has betrayed Tibetans, Uyghurs, Hongkongers, Southern Mongolians and Chinese dissidents through its inaction, corruption and willingness to side with the Chinese Communist Party, despite clear evidence that the Olympics are being used to “sports wash” the Chinese leadership’s human rights atrocities.

The protest was organised, says Free Tibet, following the IOC’s complicity in the attempts to silence tennis player Peng Shuai’s accusations of sexual assault, and the IOC’s continued ignoring of human rights abuses in favour of profitable partnerships.
The IOC’s decision to award the 2022 Winter Games to Beijing is particularly painful to Tibetans, as it echoes the 2008 Olympics, a decision that directly led to Tibet being closed off from the world and becoming the least free place on Earth, which in turn led to over 150 Tibetans setting themselves on fire in protest.

Tibetan-Canadian Chemi Lhamo, who recently disrupted the Beijing 2022 Olympic Torch Ceremony in Olympia, and Tibetan filmmaker and former political prisoner Golog Jigme led the action by expressing their complete dismay at the IOC’s blatant disregard of China’s human rights abuses; they went on to announce the “death of the Olympic Committee” and then offering hope that they will one day be reborn as something better.

Tashi Shitse of the Tibetan Youth Association in Europe said, “We welcome our fellow Tibetan activists from around the world for this important action. Peng Shuai and thousands of others have been silenced by the Chinese Communist Party and it is unacceptable that the IOC awarded them the Winter Olympics for 2022.”

Say No to Beijing Campaign
The Say No to Beijing Campaign is asking how China’s mass arrests, torture, attacks on Tibet’s culture, language and religion and the genocide of the Uyghur people, as well as the shredding of civil liberties in Hong Kong, meet the Olympic values and principles of respect, friendship, diversity and autonomy? The Campaign’s message continues, “In 2014,a letter to prospective bidders for the 2022 Winter Olympics informed them of changes to the contract, which acts as a binding agreement between the International Olympic Committee and the winner. This new clause read, ‘Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic movement’.” Say No to Beijing is calling on the British Olympic Association to take a stand for human rights and for the true spirit of the Olympics, and to boycott Beijing 2022.

Petition
Say No to Beijing has set up a petition which will be given to the British Olympic Association (BOA) in London on December 10, saying “Given the numerous and severe human rights concerns being carried out by the Chinese government, we urge the British Olympic Association (BOA) to re-evaluate its participation in the Games […] In January 2021, Tibet was listed as the worst place in the world for civil and political rights […] The Chinese government’s treatment of the Uyghur people is increasingly being recognised by governments, and the UK parliament, as genocide […] With the International Olympic Committee remaining silent, it falls to the BOA to take a firm stance. The most impactful and bravest course of action would be a boycott of the 2022 Winter Games, accompanied by a public statement that the BOA is boycotting because of the host’s extensive human rights abuses, including genocide. This would make a real difference to millions of lives and would be looked back on as a courageous, historic act by future generations.”

Swiss Complaint Against IOC Accepted
Tibet support groups in Switzerland have filed a complaint with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) against the International Olympic Committee for violating the OECD guidelines by having awarded the 2022 Winter Olympics Games to China. OECD has accepted the complaint and it will now go for the mediation process by the Swiss National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (SNCP). The notification that the complaint has been accepted was issued after an examination by the SNCP to determine whether the matter was material, whether it was within the scope of the SNCP’s remit and whether the SNCP could provide effective assistance.

The complaint was submitted jointly by the Swiss-Tibetan Friendship Association, Tibetan Youth Association in Europe, Tibetan Community in Switzerland and Liechtenstein and the Tibetan Women’s Association in Switzerland. SNCP will undertake the mediation process between the Tibet groups and the International Olympic Committee.

The complainants allege that the IOC had awarded the hosting of the 2022 Winter Olympics to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 2015, knowing of the widespread and grave human rights violations in Tibet, East Turkestan [Ch: Xinjiang], Hong Kong, Southern Mongolia and other areas of China, including mainland China. They also state that the IOC was already aware of the massive human rights violations before, during and after the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and was witness to them, and despite this it has again awarded the Olympic Games to the People’s Republic of China.

The complainants also pointed out that several of the sponsors, partners and suppliers of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing are allegedly connected directly or indirectly to the forced labour or internment camps which, they say, the PRC calls “re-education camps” or “vocational training camps”, in East Turkestan, and benefit from products manufactured using forced labour.

• The complaint detailed IOC’s negligence by failing to conduct its activities with due diligence, and in violation of OECD guidelines for Multinational Enterprises which are obliged to respect internationally recognised human rights. They say the mediation will focus on:
• How can the negative human rights impacts raised by Tibet organisations as a result of the award of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing be mitigated and remedied during these games?
• How can human rights be respected in the organisation of future Olympic Games?
• How can this mediation help in the analysis of the roles and responsibilities of the individual actors (e.g. sponsors, suppliers for the Olympic Games) according to the various guidelines of the OECD?