Should China be hosting the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing?
Human Rights Watch believes that the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing give the Chinese government a unique opportunity to demonstrate to its people and the world a commitment to the fundamental freedoms guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in China’s own constitution. Human Rights Watch hopes the international spotlight and sustained international pressure can move Chinese leaders to remove obstacles to the full enjoyment of those rights for 1.3 billion citizens. Failure by the government to guarantee freedom of movement, thought, conscience, religion, assembly, association and access to information would be unworthy of an Olympic host. While there are no agreed standards for judging whether a country should host the Olympics, there are expectations of compliance with human rights norms found in the Olympic Charter, recent history, and from the Chinese government itself. First, the Olympic Charter expressly states that “the goal of Olympism is to place sport at the
