(19 Oct 2021) Hours before Tuesday's handover of the Olympic flame for the 2022 Winter Olympics, human rights activists urged international governments, sponsors and athletes to boycott the Games.
Activist groups accused the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of granting legitimacy to rights abuses in China by allowing the Winter Games to go ahead in Beijing.
On Monday, activists disrupted the flame-lighting ceremony in southern Greece.
"For the internaitonal community to engage with the IOC ... is completely unconscionable," said Pema Dona, campaigns director at Students for a Free Tibet.
"Any human around the world, part of the international community, should take a stand together and say that genocide is a red line for us," she added.
There has been widespread international criticism of China's treatment of Uyghur Muslims in the northwest Chinese region of Xinjiang, as well as its crackdown on protesters in Hong Kong and its policies toward Tibet and Taiwan.
But the IOC — which also awarded the 2008 summer Olympics to Beijing — has shied away from the issue, saying it's out of its remit.
The Beijing Winter Games will run from February 4-20. Only spectators from mainland China will be allowed to attend.
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