Title: Urging the International Olympic Committee to take into consideration the mass detention of Uyghurs and consider all options to uphold the fundamental rights of persecuted minorities in China ahead of the 2022 Olympic Games.
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
This resolution urges the International Olympic Committee to consider that the Olympic Charter's principles of solidarity and nondiscrimination are hard to reconcile with holding the 2022 Winter Games in China, a country that the resolution states stands credibly accused of perpetuating crimes against humanity and genocide against ethnic and religious minorities.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 466 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 466

 Urging the International Olympic Committee to take into consideration 
 the mass detention of Uyghurs and consider all options to uphold the 
fundamental rights of persecuted minorities in China ahead of the 2022 
                             Olympic Games.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              June 8, 2021

Mr. Malinowski (for himself, Mr. Gallagher, Mr. Meeks, Mr. McCaul, Ms. 
Wexton, Mrs. Kim of California, Mr. McGovern, Mr. Smith of New Jersey, 
and Mrs. Wagner) submitted the following resolution; which was referred 
                  to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Urging the International Olympic Committee to take into consideration 
 the mass detention of Uyghurs and consider all options to uphold the 
fundamental rights of persecuted minorities in China ahead of the 2022 
                             Olympic Games.

Whereas more than 1,000,000 ethnic Uyghurs have been detained in a continuing 
        campaign of mass arbitrary detention in camps in the Xinjiang Uyghur 
        Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China on the basis of 
        their ethnicity, culture, and religion, raising the spectre of crimes 
        against humanity and genocide;
Whereas authorities of the Government of China have reportedly imposed 
        widespread forced sterilization, abortions, and birth control against 
        Uyghur women, potentially representing a systematic campaign to prevent 
        births within a specific ethnic group;
Whereas there remain over 300 mass detention facilities in the Xinjiang Uyghur 
        Autonomous Region, including forced labor camps, ``re-education'' or 
        indoctrination camps, prisons, and other detention facilities, where 
        Uyghurs and other Muslim or Turkic minorities are arbitrarily detained, 
        over 60 of which have shown signs of expansion in the past year;
Whereas a recent Chinese Communist Party white paper claims that between 2014 
        and 2019, over 1,000,000 Uyghurs a year received ``vocational 
        training'', a euphemism understood to indicate political and linguistic 
        indoctrination accompanied by requirements that detainees renounce their 
        Uyghur religious and ethnic identity;
Whereas there have been multiple credible reports that detained Uyghurs are 
        subjected to torture and sexual abuse, as well as forced labor at 
        factories producing goods for export inside and outside the detention 
        facilities;
Whereas, in October 2020, 39 countries at the United Nations Third Committee of 
        the General Assembly appealed for action on the mass arbitrary 
        detentions and other crimes against the Uyghur Muslim population of the 
        Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region;
Whereas the 2018 concluding observations of the United Nations Committee on the 
        Elimination of Racial Discrimination decried reports of mass arbitrary 
        detention of Uyghurs;
Whereas over 400 international nongovernmental organizations have joined 
        together to decry the mass arbitrary detentions of Uyghurs in the 
        Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region;
Whereas the Olympic Charter states that the practice of sport ``is a human 
        right'' that ``shall be secured without discrimination of any kind, such 
        as race, colour, sex, sexual orientation, language, religion, political 
        or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other 
        status''--a right that by definition cannot be secured in a country in 
        which over 1,000,000 people are imprisoned in camps because of their 
        race, language, and religion;
Whereas the 2008 Olympics in Beijing were accompanied by widespread tracking, 
        arrest, and intimidation of foreign journalists and bloggers, as well as 
        restrictions on movement of journalists, contrary to explicit 
        commitments made by the Government of the People's Republic of China to 
        the International Olympic Committee;
Whereas the Government of China denied visas for some journalists granted press 
        accreditation for the 2008 Olympic Games, and the Beijing Organising 
        Committee of the Olympic Games repeatedly refused to address incidents 
        involving freedom of expression; and
Whereas the International Olympic Committee faced broad criticism for failing to 
        adequately anticipate infringements by the Government of the People's 
        Republic of China's on freedom of expression and press for international 
        media and 2008 Olympics participants, and failing to hold the Government 
        of the People's Republic of China to their own commitments to safeguard 
        human rights during the 2008 games: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives urges the International 
Olympic Committee to--
            (1) consider that the Olympic Charter's principles of 
        solidarity and nondiscrimination are hard to reconcile with 
        holding the 2022 Winter Games in a country the government of 
        which stands credibly accused of perpetrating crimes against 
        humanity and genocide against ethnic and religious minorities;
            (2) take into account the recent precedent of the 2008 
        games, at which Olympic athletes, spectators, and international 
        media had their fundamental freedoms severely challenged, and 
        the likely limitations the Government of China will seek to 
        enforce on participants speaking out about ongoing persecution 
        of the Uyghurs and other human rights abuses in China, despite 
        repeated commitments by the Government of China;
            (3) emphasize that the International Olympic Committee is 
        not opposed to moving an Olympic competition in all 
        circumstances, and will keep this option available as demanded 
        by the human rights situation, and initiate an emergency search 
        process for suitable replacement facilities for the 2022 Winter 
        Olympics if the Government of China fails to release all 
        arbitrarily held Uyghurs from mass detention centers and 
        prisons;
            (4) affirm the International Olympic Committee's--
                    (A) desire to stay above politics does not permit 
                turning a blind eye to mass atrocity crimes, which 
                cannot and should not be dismissed as mere political 
                concerns; and
                    (B) commitment to the fundamental rights 
                instruments of the international system, which are 
                beyond partisan or domestic policy, and upon which the 
                success of the entire Olympic project depends; and
            (5) propose a set of clear, executable actions to be taken 
        by the International Olympic Committee upon infringement of 
        freedom of expression by a host country's government during any 
        Olympics event, including the 2022 Winter Olympics, against 
        athletes, participants, and international media.
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