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(Paris) – Olympic and Paralympic Games France Reforms should be introduced to ensure tolerance, non-discrimination, and the protection of fundamental human rights, Human Rights Watch said today in new guidelines for journalists covering the Olympics. The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics will open on July 26, 2024 on the Seine River.
The 35-page “A guide for journalists: Paris 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games” summarizes the rights issues relevant to the Paris Olympics and to the wider human rights issues in France. The guide also presents International Olympic Committee (IOC) and other Olympic committees and their relevance to the promotion of human rights at the Paris Olympics.
“The Olympics are a good time to expose France’s deteriorating human rights record,” Benedict Jeannerod“Contrary to the Olympic values of inclusion and non-discrimination, for example, minorities, including immigrants, suffer systematic abuse and discrimination in France.”
The upcoming Olympics come against the backdrop of early legislative elections announced by French President Emmanuel Macron following the victory of the far-right Rassemblement National party in the European Parliament elections held on June 9. The French election campaign was marred by a rise in racist, xenophobic and discriminatory rhetoric, as well as extreme political polarization. Civilized Society The public has mobilized massively in support of tolerance and non-discrimination, with the majority of voters rejecting far-right rule. A new government has yet to be appointed.
The 2024 Paris Olympics will mark the 100th anniversary of the 1924 Paris Olympics and the third time Paris has hosted the Summer Olympics. The Olympics and Paralympics will attract more than 200 countries and are expected to attract 15 million tourists and a global television audience of 5 billion, making it the most watched Olympics in history.
The motto for the 2024 Paris Olympics is “Open Games,” or “Ouvrons grand les Jeux” in French. The slogan is intended to signal that the Games will be more inclusive, open and equal, including gender equality in athletes.
The Olympic and Paralympic Games in France are the first to be held since the International Olympic Committee adopted a human rights framework in 2022. The IOC called the Paris 2024 Games “the first Olympic Games to integrate human rights throughout the organization and conduct of the Games.”
However, rather than improving human rights standards in France as the Olympics opened, there has been a worrying erosion of the rule of law and alarming human rights violations.
this Olympic Charter It explicitly prohibits “any form of discrimination” and is a “fundamental principle of Olympism”. Since 2014, the global sports community has lifted restrictions on female athletes wearing headscarves, which had prevented millions of women and girls from participating in sports such as football and basketball.
However, in France, sports authorities have banned French athletes from wearing headscarves at all levels of sport at the 2024 Paris Olympics and beyond. Given that the International Olympic Committee is targeting the 2024 Paris Olympics as a celebration event, discrimination against women and girls wearing headscarves in the country is particularly concerning. The first “Gender Equality Olympics””
The consequence of these bans is that female athletes from Olympic host countries are discriminated against and unable to exercise their human rights. French Muslim women and girls who choose to wear the hijab will never be able to qualify for this or future Olympic Games because they are excluded from the training and competition opportunities they need to reach an Olympic level. Muslim female athletes from other countries will compete in the Olympic and Paralympic Games wearing the hijab without any restrictions.
Restrictions on fundamental freedoms are increasing in France, with freedom of expression, the right to peaceful protest and freedom of association increasingly restricted. The erosion of civic space is exacerbated by the expansion and use of invasive mass surveillance technologies, disguised as security measures for events such as the Olympic and Paralympic Games. France’s new ‘Olympics’ Supervision Law Is First of its kind EU explicitly legalizes controversial algorithm-driven video surveillance that risks discrimination Racial minorities At the Olympics.
“International sporting competitions should not have long-term negative policy consequences that curtail the freedoms and fundamental rights of people in France and elsewhere,” Jeannaraud said.
As thousands of national athletes arrive in Paris from around the world, the guide also covers abuse of athletes around the world, including sexual and gender-based violence, child abuse in sport and gender testing of female athletes. Japan and Haiti arrive Mali and IndiaHuman Rights Watch works with athlete whistleblowers and victims of abuse to report abuse and understand how sport creates systems that allow human rights violations to flourish. Athletes and victims are demanding reforms by national and international sports federations to create meaningful systems for safely reporting and investigating abuse.
The Human Rights Watch journalists’ guide provides an overview of the human rights context in France and the global sports community relevant to covering the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The guide includes the background on the Olympic Games and human rights, athletes facing systemic discrimination while participating in sports, community members facing systemic racism by French law enforcement, systemic abuses and reform efforts in the Olympic Movement, and recent developments and cases of human rights violations that deserve coverage.
“The true legacy of these Summer Olympics will not be measured simply in medals or records, but in the French government’s unwavering commitment to building lasting respect for human rights,” Jeannerod said.
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