Copy our letter below and send it to your Olympic Committee. A list of the committees can be found on the Olympic website.
Letter:
To whom it may concern,
I am writing to you today regarding the numerous and severe human rights concerns surrounding the Beijing 2022 Winter Games. Given the gravity of these concerns, I believe it is necessary for Olympic associations to re-evaluate their participation in the Games, including examining the option of a full boycott.
As you are no doubt aware, the 2022 Winter Games will take place against a backdrop of serious and escalating human rights abuses. The situation in occupied Tibet has deteriorated dramatically since 2008, when peaceful protests before the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics were brutally put down. Tibetans today are subject to mass surveillance, arrests for any form of protest or criticism of the Chinese government and torture. In the meantime, their language, religion and environment are being systematically attacked. In January 2021, the organisation Freedom House listed Tibet as the worst place in the world for civil and political rights, alongside Syria.
To the north of Tibet, the Chinese government has been carrying out policies that international governments, including the United States, and the Canadian and UK parliaments, are increasingly recognizing as genocide. At least two million Uyghur, Kazakh and Uzbek Muslims are currently incarcerated in “re-education camps” undergoing systematic torture, rape and political re-education. Several Uyghur women have also come forward with testimonies that they were forcibly sterilized.
This repression also extends to other people under Chinese Communist Party rule, with a security crackdown in Hong Kong, attempts to erase the identity of Southern Mongolians and harassment of journalists and government critics.
The 2022 Winter Games will legitimize these abuses, just as the 2008 Summer Olympics rewarded the Chinese government for its widespread human rights abuses. Before the 2008 Summer Olympics, Beijing made a range of commitments to human rights and increased openness before discarding them with absolutely no consequences, ultimately escalating its crackdowns against Tibetans, Uyghurs and government critics. The result of the International Olympic Committee failing to challenge the Chinese government is that the human rights environment under Chinese Communist Party rule is significantly worse today than that of 2008.
I believe Olympians are people of conscience who are committed to the Olympic Charter and its Fundamental Principles of Olympism that include a focus on “the harmonious development of humankind, “promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity”, and rights and freedoms for all “secured without discrimination of any kind.”
Given this commitment, and given that the 2022 Winter Olympic host government is actively committing genocide against the Uyghur people and mass against Tibetans, Hongkongers, Southern Mongolians and Chinese citizens, a firm stance is needed. The bravest, most decisive stance would be a full boycott of the Beijing 2022 Winter Games. It is a difficult decision and I appreciate that the IOC has put athletes in a tough situation by ignoring calls to move the Games to a country where the host is not committing genocide. Nevertheless, it would be an act that could make a real difference to millions of lives. Boycotts, combined with political pressure, can create change, such as the boycotts of apartheid South Africa. A boycott of Beijing 2022 would be looked back on as a courageous, historic deed by future generations.
Thank you for your time, I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,