China Olympics – Important Reforms Marred by Increasing Repression

Amnesty International, 30 April 2007-

Despite significant reforms to the death penalty system and new rules for foreign journalists in China, there is little evidence of improvement in other areas of human rights related to the Olympics — and there has been increasing repression of human rights activism and domestic journalism, said Amnesty International today.

In its latest assessment of China’s progress towards its promised human rights improvements ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Amnesty International also found that the Olympics is apparently acting as a catalyst to extend the use of detention without trial, at least in Beijing.

“The new extra layer of judicial review for death sentences and the relaxation of restrictions on foreign journalists are important steps towards better respect for human rights in China. Disappointingly, they have been matched by moves to expand detention without trial and ‘house arrest’ of activists, and by a tightening of controls over domestic media and the Internet,” said Catherine Baber, Deputy Asia Pacific Director at Amnesty International.

“The failure to ensure equal rights and freedoms for both foreign and domestic journalists smacks of double standards — China has yet to meet its promise to ensure ‘complete media freedom’ for the Olympics.”

An overriding pre-occupation with ‘stability’ and ‘a good social environment’ for the hosting of the Olympics appears to inform this approach. While such concerns are understandable for any country holding such a major international event, policies and practices must be founded on respect for rule of law and human rights, or they risk fuelling further discontent.

Moves to reform or abolish ‘Re-education through Labour’ remain stalled, with the Olympics apparently being used as a pretext to extend its use in order to ‘clean up’ Beijing in time for August 2008. The Beijing police have also recently suggested that another form of detention without trial, ‘Compulsory Drug Rehabilitation’, may be extended from six months to one year to force drug users to ‘give up their addictions before the Olympics’.

“If the Chinese authorities and the International Olympic Committee are serious about the Olympics having a ‘lasting legacy’ for China, they should be concerned that the Games are being used as a pretext to entrench and extend forms of detention that have been on China’s reform agenda for many years,” said Catherine Baber.

Amnesty International has sent copies of its latest update to the Chinese authorities and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), noting that these issues are directly relevant to Beijing’s hosting of the Olympics and key principles in the Olympic Charter, such as ‘preservation of human dignity’.

“The IOC cannot want an Olympics that is tainted with human rights abuses — whether families forcibly evicted from their homes to make way for sports arenas or growing numbers of peaceful activists held under ‘house arrest’ to stop them drawing attention to human rights issues,” said Catherine Baber. (…… more details from Amnesty International)