Where’s the IOC On the Push for Olympic Human Rights?

By Zosha Millman | LXBN | June 16, 2016

In the time of doping scandals and the Zika virus, the International Olympics Committee (IOC) certainly has its hands full preparing for this summer’s games. But the truth is it’s possible they’re not doing enough.Since Rio began preparing for hosting there have been complaints of human rights violations. Allegedly there have been over 4,100 families evicted, police violence has risen, and poor labor conditions run rampant. And now Vice is reporting that the government is using the Olympics as means to justify huge investments in security technology. The city now commands hundreds of surveillance cameras, “monitoring balloons,” and radio signal blocking technology, not to mention the drones, facial recognition goggles, and 122 surveillance helicopters left over from the 2014 World Cup. Combined with the political upheaval in the country, Motherboard isn’t sure the technology is merited—or limited—by the Olympics:

Some of these concerns are merited. After all, no one can deny that the Olympics are a tempting target, and recently a competitor on Brazil’s Olympic shooting team wasshot in the head by gang members who staged a fake police roadblock in Rio. But some of the concern is undoubtedly hyped up, especially considering that the focus for much of Brazilian law enforcement when it comes to mega-event security is the threat of “violent street protests.”

It’s certainly true that protests are likely as the impeachment process of President Dilma Rousseffmoves forward. Former Vice President Michel Temer, now interim president, has made immediatechanges to the government. He dissolved 10 ministries, including the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Human Rights, and appointed a cabinet of conservative white men—the first cabinet in 37 years with no women or minorities.

…In this atmosphere, all of the government’s new security technology will inevitably double as tools of repression and surveillance. Conditions will worsen under Temer—his cabinet members have slyly indicated that essential social programs like Bolsa Familia will be kept “only for people who really need them,” and a Dilma-era housing program has already been cut. As things get worse, Brazilians have proven that they will take to the streets.

It’s a recipe for political repression that harkens back to Brazil’s era of military dictatorship in the 60s to the 80s. And if the world turns its eyes away from Brazil and allows human rights abuses to continue after the Olympics are over, that era will return.

While the IOC has encouraged people to focus on the event, which they’re sure will be a “safe, peaceful and full of celebration and joy,” it’s hard to ignore the unrest in Rio, and even harder to condone building over it with fancy new stadiums and surveillance technology. Especially since the Olympics often leaves narratives like this in its wake.

Photo Credit: Captain Roger Fenton 1860 cc

Sure, the games certainly bring prestige and tourism with them to the cities and countries they’re hosted by, like the 1988 games in Seoul, South Korea. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t also increase the risks of child exploitation, exploit labor, force evictions due to massive infrastructure overhauls of both civilians and small-businesses, silence civil rights activists, andimproper construction waste management.

Though some could argue that the Olympics has toured some controversial choices in recent years, the abuses stretch back, as the Institute for Human Rights and Businesses wrote after the 2012 Olympics in London:

Studies suggest 1.5 million people were displaced for the construction of Olympic venues and related infrastructure prior to Beijing 2008. Gentrification, soaring house prices and a reduction in the availability of affordable/social housing stock are also habitual problems; house prices increased by over 100% in the run-up to Barcelona in 1992, while in Atlanta 1,200 public housing units were lost and 15,000 low-income residents were priced out of the city.

Marginalised groups frequently bear the brunt, with hundreds of Roma people displaced prior to Athens 2004. The criminalisation of homelessness is also a regular occurrence. Atlanta’s attempt to “clean the streets” in 1996, resulted in 9,000 arrest citations issued to homeless people, many of them African-Americans. Not only does this raise questions over the responsibility of the International Olympic Committee(IOC) and host authorities, but also the companies carrying out the work.

The Rio government has, of course, denied entering a new chapter in this legacy. According to them, 72 percent of the families were relocated out of areas that were at risk for floods and landslides, while 9.6 percent of the transportation overhauls benefit the city as a whole. But protesters say that the social-costs outweigh the benefits, which often skew to the wealthier parts of the city anyway, like they have in Atlanta, Athens, Barcelona, and more.

The truth is, the Olympics are unrivaled in their capacity and ability to bring together people and cultures from around the world, not to mention highlight disparities within those nations. Since the founding of the games more than a century ago, the IOC has aimed (and succeeded in many ways) to bring the world together through sport, and uphold the Olympic values enshrined in the Olympic Charter, including to act against any form of discrimination affecting the Olympic Movement, to protect press freedom, and to promote a positive legacy to host cities and host countries. Like TV, the Olympics can teach, they can illuminate, they can even inspire. Theycan be a driving force for change in the countries that participate in them. But only so long as the IOC helps push its governing bodies that direction.

“With the IOC on its back foot, perhaps we’re actually witnessing a propitious moment for human rights groups to press for meaningful change,” said Jules Boykoff, a professor of political science at Pacific University, told The Guardian last December.

“The Olympics have long provided local developers and politicians with an alibi to steamroll already marginalized communities … The IOC absolutely needs to start taking human rights more seriously. This is a no-brainer. The IOC tendency to foist plausible deniability on us has become undeniably implausible.”

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