Less than three weeks before the opening of the Beijing Winter Games, the health issue remains dominant in the Olympic movement. But it does not completely obscure the debate on human rights in China. At the initiative of the international organization Human Rights Watch, a press briefing organized on Tuesday January 18 in virtual mode highlighted the risks that could be run by athletes who decide to express their hostility to the Chinese regime at the Winter Games next month. . A relaxation of the Olympic Charter now allows participants to express an opinion within the framework of the Games. They cannot do it on a podium, but today they have the right to do so in front of the media and on social networks. But the IOC makes it clear: the rules defined by the Olympic Charter must also respect the “ applicable public law“. Clearly, the laws in force in the host country of the Games cannot be circumvented without risk of sanction. To date, the IOC has not yet communicated on the conditions of application of the rule of the Olympic Charter on freedom of expression. A silence that Canadian Rob Koehler, executive director of the activist group Global Athlete, describes as “ of complicity » with China. “ We know the human rights record and the limits to freedom of expression in China, he suggested Tuesday January 18. We therefore know that athletes who choose to express themselves would not have much protection. » Faced with the risk of a sanction whose nature remains vague, human rights associations recommend that athletes not speak out during the Games, but wait to do so until they have left China and returned to their country.
