Tibet: Tibet Appeals to the International Olympic Committee to block the 2022 Beijing Games on Human

Source: UNPO

On Friday [31 July 2015], the International Olympic Committee will select either Beijing or Almaty as the host city for the 2022 Winter Games. Tibetan civil society groups have submitted formal requests to prevent the Beijing Games on human rights rounds. The effort to block the 2022 Beijing Games illuminates a larger, more expansive problem in China wherein crackdowns on groups outside the Communist Party are commonplace. Human rights abuses and control of civil society remain at the forefront of the Tibetan struggle with China.
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Tibetan activists and others are calling on the International Olympic Committee not to award the 2022 Winter Games to Beijing, saying China's human rights record after the 2008 Olympics in the Chinese capital worsened rather than showing a hoped-for improvement.

The IOC will choose Friday between only two cities: Beijing and Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, after all other bidders dropped out for financial or political reasons. Both countries are frequently criticized over their record on human rights and press freedoms.

Tibetan rights groups and human rights activists have written letters to the IOC, delivered a report to the IOC on human rights abuses and tried to disrupt the city's lobbying to try to prevent the decision from going to Beijing as it did in the 2001 vote for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

Read more: http://unpo.org/article/18428