From Human Rights Without Frontiers Int'l
February 7, 2008

FIDH 07.02.2008 - Six months before the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) launches a strong appeal to the international community regarding the human rights situation in the People's Republic of China.

FIDH firmly believes that the organisation of the upcoming Olympic Games could give China the opportunity to undertake necessary steps for consolidating democracy, strengthening human rights respect and reinforcing the rule of law. Instead, the current regime is increasing censorship aiming to silence any critical voice. The case of the well known human rights defender Hu Jia  http://www.fidh.org/spip.php?article5117 illustrates a perfect example of defiance, not only of the international human rights standards but also of international community's legitimacy. The latter raised its voice as a sign of protest of this arbitrary arrest and detention. The Chinese authorities just ignored it.

Despite many allegations that the human rights record of the Chinese government has improved, death penalty is largely applied, foreign and domestic journalists face police harassment, political activists are arbitrarily arrested and detained. In addition, a recent FIDH fact-finding mission http://www.fidh.org/spip.php?article4345  reveals that thousands of people are forced to leave their houses and shops so that authorities could show China's new face to the world.

As member of the China 2008 Olympics Collective, a coalition of 9 French Non-Governmental Organisations, which presented to Chinese authorities 8 requirements http://pekin2008.rsfblog.org/archive/2007/05/30/8-requirements-for-beijing.html that could be implemented immediately, FIDH notes with concern the absence of progress as none of these requirements found echo to Chinese government.

"/The international community should seize this last opportunity and address crucial human rights issues, otherwise the current regime will continue, without any obstacles, to ignore basic human rights in defiance of universal principles/" declared Ms Souhayr Belhassen, FIDH President.

China will be on the spotlight for the next six months. For FIDH it is not a question of separating political and social agendas from a famous athletic event. It is mainly a question of protecting the very core values of the athletic movement, as the Charter itself declares that "/Olympism seeks to create a way of life based [...] on respect for universal fundamental ethical principles/".