Until the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party are prepared to reform and recognize the inherent rights of all people, they should not be awarded the honour of another Olympics. The IOC must recognise that the Olympic spirit and the reputation of the Olympic Games will suffer further damage if the worsening human rights crisis in China is simply ignored.

There is no excuse for making this mistake because we have been here before. This time it is imperative that the IOC stands on the right side of history, and gives hope to all those – including Tibetans, Uyghurs, Southern Mongolians, and Han Chinese – who continue to bravely defend human rights and principles in an extremely dangerous and hostile climate.

Our collective message to all International Olympic Committee members is that for hundreds of millions of people inside China’s borders, the Games returning to Beijing will be a green light for the government’s ongoing abuse of their rights and denial of their hopes for freedom. We urge members of the IOC to reject China’s bid.

Signed:

Golog Jigme is a Tibetan monk, activist and former political prisoner. He was arrested and tortured in 2008 after having made a film, Leaving Fear Behind, interviewing Tibetans in Tibet about their views on China’s rule and the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He escaped from prison in 2012 and after 20 months on the run, crossed the border into India in May  2014. He now lives in Switzerland.

Yang Jianli is a leader of China’s democracy movement and President of Initiatives for China. He has been involved in the pro-democracy movement in China since the 1980s and was forced to flee China in 1989 after the Tiananmen Square massacre. He spent 5 years in a Chinese prison between 2002 and 2007 after travelling to China on a friend’s passport to investigate labour unrest. He has met with His Holiness the Dalai Lama on many occasions.

Rebiya Kadeer is the leader of the Uyghur Democracy Movement and President of the World Uyghur Congress. An activist and businesswoman, she was imprisoned from 2000 – 2005 for her relentless political and human rights activism and now lives in exile in the United States. She’s been awarded the Rafto Prize for Human Rights and in 2012 was included in the list of ‘500 Most Influential Muslims’.

Enghebatu Togochog is the Director of the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC), a New York based human rights organization dedicated to protection and promotion of the Mongolian people in Southern Mongolia.

To contact any of the signatories above please contact:

Mandie McKeown, International Tibet Network