Human Rights Watch Condemns 2022 Candidates Ahead of IOC Vote

(ATR) Human Rights Watch is pleading for the IOC to take action against "serious human rights problems" in both Almaty and Beijing, one week before the election of the host city for the 2022 Winter Olympics.

The watchdog group released a 31-page report on Thursday (July 23) attacking Kazakhstan for discrimination and hostilities against its LGBT community.

The report titled "That’s When I Realized I Was Nobody’: A Climate of Fear for LGBT People in Kazakhstan" details pervasive homophobic attitudes, hateful treatment, and failure of police and other government agencies to protect LGBT people in Kazakhstan.

Since 2005, Human Rights Watch has documented and condemned human rights abuses by Olympic host countries and hosts of other major sporting events in the preparations and staging of games, including China, Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Qatar.

"The IOC shouldn’t take its eye off the ball on ugly discrimination and human rights abuses for Olympic host contenders," said Kyle Knight of HRW, author of the report.

"The IOC and the Kazakhstan government should publicly condemn anti-LGBT discrimination to signal that there is no place for homophobia in global sport or the countries that want to host Olympic Games," he said on the HRW website.

Earlier this week, HRW issued a statement advising that the IOC "should ensure that the host of the 2022 Winter Olympics fully respects human rights commitments in preparing for and hosting of the games."

Human Rights Watch global initiatives director Minky Worden said: "Whether China or Kazakhstan wins the honor of hosting the 2022 Winter Games, the IOC will face an extreme test of its new commitment to improve human rights protection.

"The IOC should insist that the host country rigorously comply with the Olympic Charter and basic human rights rules – or risk losing the right to host the games."

Human Rights Watch analyzed and condemned the proposed anti-gay "propaganda" legislation presented in Kazakhstan’s parliament in early 2015. The law was later rejected by the Kazakh Constitutional Council and deemed "unconstitutional."

As part of the Olympic Agenda 2020 reforms passed in December, the IOC amended the Olympic Charter to include a specific reference against discrimination based upon sexual orientation.

China has also been a frequent target by HRW since the lead-up to the 2008 Beijing Games. The watchdog group, along with international NGO "Free Tibet," decry hostilities and abuses towards Tibetan people, intolerance against journalists and media freedoms and internet censorship, claiming they are just as prevalent since the Chinese capital last hosted the Games, despite promises for change.

"We’ve already seen one Olympic Games fuel human rights abuses in China, and the environment in 2015 is significantly worse than it was in 2008," Worden said.

Founded in 1987, Free Tibet campaigns for an end to China's occupation of Tibet and for international recognition of Tibetans' right to freedom.

Tibetan protesters caused a stir at June’s Candidate Cities Briefing in Lausanne. A small group chanted and waved flags outside Lausanne’s Palace Hotel with a few managing to dodge security officials, getting inside and disrupting Beijing’s presentation to IOC and media members.

Concerns by Human Rights Watch have not gone unheard by the IOC.

IOC president Thomas Bach responded to HRW on addressing issues on July 15.

In a letter, Bach wrote: "The IOC is an organization firmly opposed to all forms of discrimination in sport."

"As a sporting organization, we are not in a position to dictate the wider laws of any sovereign nation. This is not our role. Our role is that when it comes to evaluate Candidate Cities and to elect Host Cities, we have the necessary guarantees that there is no discrimination of any kind at the Games."

The IOC will elect either Beijing or Almaty to host the 2022 Games on July 31 in Kuala Lumpur.

Written by Brian Pinelli

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