- Introduction
- I. Risks and Rights
- II. Outside the Arena
- III. Security, Surveillance, and Safety
- IV. Protecting Your Chinese Contacts
- V. The Great Firewall
- VI. Practical Information
- Map of China with 2008 Olympic Sites
- Download PDF / English
- Download PDF / French
- Download PDF / German
- Download PDF / Japanese
- Download PDF / Spanish
Olympic-Related Human Rights Issues
With relation to the actual staging of the Games, there are particular human rights concerns directly tied to the Olympics that have arisen or gotten worse:
- Jailing of Olympic critics: Chinese citizens who have challenged the government to live up to the promises it made when it was awarded the Olympics have been specifically targeted (see brief profiles of Hu Jia and other human rights activists below). High-profile activists typically know the risks involved in criticizing the government and some seem to have decided that the Olympics spotlight would provide protection. They have largely been proven wrong and several have received jail terms for “subversion.” If today’s pattern holds, a pre-Olympic clampdown in the weeks and days before the Games is likely.
- Limitations on athletes’ freedom of speech: In May 2008, the IOC reminded national Olympic Committees that Article 51 of the Olympic Charter forbids athletes from engaging in any “kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda…in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas." Imposing these rules not only puts the IOC in the unacceptable position of determining what constitutes “political” speech, but doing so in a country that already dramatically restricts those rights expressly contradicts the promise that the Games would improve the protection of these rights in China. How will Beijing and the International Olympic Committee enforce speech restrictions?
- Labor rights abuses: The massive new sports venues that will host all Olympic events were constructed largely by thousands of migrant laborers compelled to do dangerous work without adequate safeguards. Human Rights Watch has documented that in some cases these workers were not paid at all.
- Forced evictions and school closures: The construction of facilities for the 2008 Olympic Games has involved forced evictions of thousands of citizens in and around Beijing, often without adequate compensation or access to new housing. The pre-Olympic “clean-up” of Beijing has also resulted in the closure of unregistered schools for the children of migrant workers. Where have the migrant workers who built Olympic venues and those evicted to make way for the “new Beijing” been sent?
