Requirements for Human Rights, Labour Rights, Anti-Corruption and Stakeholder Involvement for Olympic and Paralympic Games

Participants attend an event marking the three-year countdown to the start of the 2018 Winter Olympics at Alpensia Ski Jumping Center in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Monday, Feb. 9, 2015. The organizing committee celebrated Monday’s milestone with an event at Pyeongchang’s ski jumping center and Olympic stadium site. Kim Jong, an official with South Korea’s sports ministry, said officials are “at a critical point” in preparations for the games, which will run from Feb. 9-25, 2018. (AP Photo/Yonhap, Han Jong-chan) KOREA OUT

Dr. Thomas Bach
President IOC
Château de Vidy 1007
Lausanne
Switzerland

Ref: Requirements for Human Rights, Labour Rights, Anti-Corruption and Stakeholder Involvement for Olympic and Paralympic Games

Dear President Bach,

We recognize that through the IOC Agenda 2020 and the updated Host City Contract for the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2024, published in September 2015, the IOC has made advances with regard to its responsibility for transparency, accountability and human rights, especially anti-discrimination of all kinds, in relation to the Games.

Building on the progress achieved to date, we feel there is a need and opportunity to go even further. Policies and practices adopted by the IOC have the potential to prevent, mitigate, report on and respond appropriately to the full spectrum of human rights and good governance risks posed before, during and after the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

In order to articulate key labour rights and other human rights, and anti-corruption recommendations with one voice, we have developed the attached document. This document sets out what we see as the key steps the IOC should take to ensure that future Games respect and promote universal human rights, protect the rights of workers, and contribute to transparency and good governance. This letter and the document are supported by a broad coalition of organizations and experts joining the IOC towards the shared goal of advancing human rights in the harmonious development of humankind, as stated in the Olympic Charter.

We would like to discuss the requirements with you and/or your experts, in order to take up your views before publication of the document. We are aiming at having an impact still on the Winter Games 2022 in Beijing and above all including our proposals into the bidding process for the Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games 2024, i.e. making the requirements part of the Host City Contract 2024. According to a footnote in the HCC 2024 this contract will be reviewed after the Games in Rio in autumn this year so that human rights aspects can still be added. Our paper is complementary to the separate wider multi- stakeholder initiative for an independent Centre on Learning, Legacy and Accountability for Mega Sporting Events chaired by Mary Robinson and facilitated by the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB), which many of us are engaged in.

We look forward to your comments on our requirements and would like to fix a date for a meeting with IOC representatives in the near future.

Sincerely,

Sport and Rights Alliance partners:
Amnesty International
FIFPro
Football Supporters Europe
Human Rights Watch
International Trade Union Corporation Terre des Hommes
Transparency International Germany UNI World Athletes

Individual partners:
Carlos Lopez, Senior Legal Adviser, International Commission of Jurists Jane Warburton, Independent expert on child protection
Malak El-Chichini Poppovic, Business and Human Rights Group, São Paulo Law School at Getúlio Vargas Foundation
Dr. Najat Maalla M’jid, Child rights specialist and former Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography
Ute Mayrhofer, Education Unit, Advocacy at Dreikönigsaktion

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