Showcasing countries with poor human rights records  Allowing a country to host a major sporting event gives them a big boost in international prestige. Repressive regimes to not deserve this.  Equatorial Guinea, a dictatorship run by Teoodoro Obiang, is one of the world’s worst human rights offenders, with the worst possible scores for civil liberties and political rights according to Freedom House [1] .  Gabon, while rated by Freedom House as better than Equatorial Guinea, also has a bad human rights record, with “harsh prison conditions, lengthy pretrial detention, ritual killings, police use of excessive force, … widespread government corruption … and forced child labor [sic]” [2] .  [1] Freedom House, “Equatorial Guinea”, Freedom House   [2] US State Department, Gabon 2012 Human Rights Report,