The Olympic Games in China could be a “force for good”. The then IOC President Jacques Rogge took this view before the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. “That sounds like mockery, because the opposite was the case,” said Wenzel Michalski, head of Human Rights Watch Germany, 14 years later.
The human rights situation in the country has deteriorated significantly since the summer games. As an example, he cites the oppression of the people in Hong Kong and the camp system for Muslim minorities. “China in particular is actually the example that sport has not done anything good,” Michalski said in the Dlf sport talk.
The FDP human rights politician Peter Heidt also sees it that way. “It is a complete myth to believe that major events in these countries would improve human rights,” says the member of the Bundestag.
“Actually we should boycott these winter games completely”
The human rights violations in China have a quality that has not existed in this form in the past 30 years. “It is maddening to host these Winter Games in China now. I know the athletes are preparing for them. But actually we should boycott these Winter Games completely.”
“I think 2022 will be a watershed”
Human Rights Watch would have had nothing against a complete boycott of the Games, Michalski said. Demanding this is not part of the mandate as a human rights organization. “But not asking for it hurts a bit,” said the human rights activist. It could also well be that the human rights organization would change its mind if the IOC or the FIFA sport events continued to award to autocratic regimes.
“The point that these associations have lost their credibility has been exceeded, I can say that very clearly,” said Michalski. “I think that 2022 will be a watershed that will show whether these big world associations still make sense or whether they have made themselves obsolete.”
The officials did not recognize the signs of the times. “If even the business world is already calling for businessmen to denounce the human rights violations in Xinjiang, then at the latest it must be clear to Mr. Bach and the others that their time has come. And they must step back and leave the field to a new generation of human rights-conscious functionaries “, says Michalski. “The power of the sports associations must actually be broken now, because they have shown that they are only acting irresponsibly and greedily.”
Peter Heidt also sees the sporting year 2022 with the Olympic Games in China and the World Cup in Qatar as a possible turning point. He hopes that an alliance of athletes, politics, human rights organizations and business associations will form that will put pressure on the international sports associations.
“We have to put the thumbscrews on them”
“It is not God-given that the games only have to be organized by the IOC. It is not God-given that FIFA alone is beatific when it comes to football.” It must be made clear to the associations that if they did not change, sporting events could be organized differently.
2022 as the year of rethinking
Both are also of the opinion that the Federal Ministry of the Interior, which is responsible for sport, must demand clear rules of conduct from the German associations. “I believe that we have to demand good governance from our sports associations as well as from business enterprises,” said Heidt. Associations that adhere to these rules should continue to receive tax money. “And the national associations that do not do that, we will cut funding, with a certain threat.”
This is a lever that politicians can use to exert an influence. In addition, they are working on a European supply chain law that should also apply to sports associations.
“We will look back on the year 2022 and remember it as the beginning of a changed awareness of what sport means,” believes Heidt. Michalski also hopes that 2022 will be the year “that the major rethinking has accelerated and that we will then have a truly human rights-based award of the Games in the next few decades.”