MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th April, 2021) The International Olympic Committee (IOC) maintains a neutral position on global political issues and calls on governments to follow suit amid the reports that the US is planning to boycott the 2022 Winter Games in China's Beijing over alleged human rights abuses of the Uyghur Muslim minority, IOC press service told Sputnik on Wednesday.
State Department spokesperson Ned price said on Tuesday that the US government was planning to discuss with its allies and partners the joint boycott of the 2022 Beijing Olympics. In March, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and the European Union imposed sanctions on four Chinese officials and one entity for alleged human rights violations in the Xinjiang region of China.
"The Olympic Games are the only event that brings the entire world together in peaceful competition. ... The Olympic Games are governed by the IOC, not by governments. The IOC issues the invitation to NOCs [National Olympic Committees] to participate - the invitations do not come from the government of the host country. The host country's head of state is allowed to say only one sentence, scripted by the IOC, to officially open the Games. No other politician is allowed to play any role whatsoever," the committee said.
Last month, US Senator Rick Scott sent a letter to sponsors of the IOC demanding that the 2022 Games be moved from Beijing to a city in another country because China had engaged in human rights abuses.
In August 2018, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination reported that large numbers of ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities were being held in political "reeducation camps" in Xinjiang � often for long periods, and without being charged or tried � under the pretext of countering terrorism and religious extremism.
China has repeatedly refuted these claims as unfounded and not reflective of reality. Chinese authorities argued that the vocational education and training centers were part of the nation's anti-extremism campaign to help Uyghurs learn the standard Mandarin language and obtain adequate professional skills.
