Sample Letter to Dr. Jacques Rogge, President of IOC
Dr. Jacques Rogge
President of International Olympic Committee (IOC)
Chateau de Vidy
Case Postale 356
1007 Lausanne
Switzerland
Dear Dr. Rogge:
I am writing to request that you take a stand worthy of your position as the President of the International Olympic Committee against China's continuing human rights violations.
As you are well aware, while bidding for the 2008 Olympic Games, China repeatedly promised to improve its human rights record and it was based on that promise Beijing was granted the right to host the 2008 Games.
As you are also well aware, China has not kept that promise. In violation of the UN Convention on Refugees, China continues to arrest and repatriate North Korean refugees knowing that Christians among them will perish in Kim Jong-il's concentration camps and that babies of the women who became pregnant after being sexually enslaved in China will be killed. In Sudan, China is the largest financier and arms supplier to the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militia, the perpetrators of the Darfur genocide. The Chinese government also continues to arrest, beat, torture, imprison and kill Chinese Christians who refuse to join the Three Self Patriotic Movement cult, as well as Chinese reporters whose only crimes are telling the truth. And in Tibet, China continues to trample on the Tibetan culture, society and people.
In 2001, the Chinese government and the International Olympic Committee signed a contract for the 2008 Olympics. By continuing to engage in human rights violations at home and abroad, China has breached that contract. As the counterparty to that contract, it is your right and duty to demand that China honor the terms of that contract.
But the present situation goes beyond a contract. "The goal of Olympism", as enshrined in the Olympic Charter, "is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity."
The goal of the Olympics as envisioned by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement, isn't "sport", but the usage of sport to promote "harmonious development of man" , "peaceful society" , "human dignity."
Your timid silence against China's continuing human rights violations not only encourages delegations who bid for future Olympic Games to make false promises, but also fails to uphold the founding principles of the Olympic movement itself.
Ultimately, if the Chinese government insists on perpetuating its human rights violations, you cannot stop it. But then you can and must move the Games. Count Henri de Baillet-Latour, your compatriot IOC President who kept the 1936 Games in Berlin may be able to claim that he couldn't imagine the Games being used to legitimize a government that opposes the goal of Olympism. You do not have that luxury.
Thank you in advance for your consideration, and courage.
Sincerely yours,