Advocate for Change: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs Join the Fight for Justice in France’s Rights Issues
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: 22-09-2023
International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs
Subject: Calling to Boycott the Paris Olympics 2024 Due to France’s Human Rights Violations
It definitely would be in your knowledge that France will be hosting the Summer Olympics for the third time in 2024. In this regard, we feel obliged to draw your attention to the increasing human rights violations in France which certainly cannot be ignored, especially from the perspective of selecting Paris for this mega sporting event. We start discussing our concerns by restating the words of the United Nations Charter, 1945 which says, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”
As a human rights organization, you can present and amplify our resolution to boycott the Paris Olympics 2024 in light of human rights violations by France in the past and present. Presently, France is facing massive criticism coupled with riots and protests pertaining to the killing of a 17-year-old Algerian boy, by traffic police. Notably, it was the second event of this kind to happen in France, and surprisingly, such events occurred 13 times in the past year. To demonstrate a historical perspective, let us include an example of the forced expulsion of Roma in 2010. With this purpose, the French government launched a program of forced deportation of the Roma. To this day, many human rights bodies and international political organizations have criticized these deportations, but no practical results could have been extracted.
Our fundamental motive to write this to you is to convince you to participate in the movement to boycott a country that continues to violate the rights of its own people. We urge you to utilize in your full capacity, the convincing power, to criticize International Olympic Organization (IOC) for awarding the Olympics to the country with poor human rights records. We would like to remind you that the IOC has a responsibility of ensuring that the Olympic Games are held in a way that everyone gets respected and human rights standards are adhered to. However, allowing France to host the Paris Olympics is similar to condoning the human rights violations by France.
Our plea is to take the necessary action to form pressure on IOC to take the following steps:
· Postpone Paris Olympics 2024 until the French government takes robust measures to address its human rights violations
· Make it mandatory for all future host cities to adhere to strict human rights standards, not just till the time of selection or hosting the game but in a sustained manner
· Formulate an independent committee to enforce and monitor human rights at the venue of the Olympics
Our ultimate goal is that the Olympics should be a celebration of human achievements, not a place for human rights violations. We want the Paris Olympics 2024 to be held in a way that respects the rights of everyone, and which brings peace and harmony, not Paris Olympics 24 controversy.
Undoubtedly, change is inevitable, only when we stand united against injustice.
Team Paris Olympics 24
