This Friday, more than 3,000 athletes will compete at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics (4 February to 20 February), amid the continuation of forced labour and other human rights abuses in China.
Reinhard Bütikofer, Greens/EFA MEP and Chair of the European Parliament's China Delegation, is leading a campaign calling "for government officials and diplomats to decline invitations to the Beijing 2022 Winter Games." Last July, the European Parliament had already urged the EU to boycott the event unless China improves the human rights situation in Hong Kong and the Xinjiang province. Our committee members Mar Garcia, the Secretary-General of the European Greens, and Evelyne Huytebroek, Co-Chair of the European Greens, as well as other Green politicians are supporting the boycott of China's Winter Olympics.
No to the "Winter Olympics" in Beijing. @bueti #No2SlaveLabour pic.twitter.com/OMuooGvSpO
— Evelyne Huytebroeck (@EHuytebroeck) February 2, 2022
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Green parties, civil society organisations and trade unions have called for an end to state-sponsored forced labour and other human rights abuses such as sexual abuse, forced sterilisation and torture, which the Uyghur Muslim minority have suffered from. Samuel Cogolati, Member of the Chamber of Representatives of Belgium and Member of Ecolo, emphasised that the Winter Olympics will not 'make us forget these crimes'.
China's network of extrajudicial 're-education camps' in Xinjiang have been internationally condemned. But recent evidence shows factories across China utilising forced Uyghur labour under a state-sponsored labour transfer scheme, from which 83 foreign and Chinese companies would be benefitting.
Am Freitag beginnen die #Beijing2022WinterOlympics vor dem Hintergrund der sich verschlechternden Menschenrechtslage in China. Gemeinsam mit Grünen KollegInnen aus dem Bundestag sage ich #No2SlaveLabour #DiplomaticBoycott. Mehr dazu: https://t.co/4ZeJJRV6Af pic.twitter.com/xRjMqhDLlT
— Reinhard Bütikofer (@bueti) January 31, 2022
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), Co-Chaired by Reinhard Bütikofer, have urged the United Nations to 'urgently monitor the repression of ethnic and religious minorities' and publish their findings of an upcoming report on the situation ahead of the Winter Olympics. Bütikofer states:
"As the world's attention turns to Beijing for the Games, we cannot allow the Chinese government to 'sports-wash' over the atrocities taking place in the Xinjiang region. No country, no matter how large or important, is beyond scrutiny or above international law. The time has come for the [United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights] to publish its report and begin to establish what is truly happening in the Xinjiang region."
As of now, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Japan, Lithuania, the United Kingdom, and the United States have committed to a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics, with other countries not sending government officials due to the pandemic.
Our latest Green Talking Heads Podcast discusses forced labour – and what the European Union can do to tackle this critical issue. Sarah Diedro is in conversation with MEP for the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament and member of the German Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) Anna Cavazzini. They explore how forced labour can be addressed through import bans on products related to severe human rights violations. Listen now!
