China: Calls for boycott of Beijing Olympics likely to rise over human rights concerns

The calls for the boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics are expected to rise amid the Chinese repression of the Uyghur community in Xinjiang. Human rights advocates and lawmakers of several countries have been calling for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics, according to ANI. Protests are being held around the world against conducting the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics as Chinese authorities have reportedly been suppressing the human rights of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

As the Winter Olympics are scheduled to be hosted in Beijing in February 2022, there have been ongoing discussions on the possibility of a boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics, ANI reported citing EU Today. Edward McMillan-Scott, former vice-President of the European Parliament called for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics at a conference in Brussels. During the conference, delegates discussed the issue of forced organ harvesting.

Calls for boycott of 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

As per the ANI report, forced organ harvesting, a practice due to which nearly 10,000 people have died in order to sell their organs in the open market. Reportedly, the organs are also given to the unwell Communist Party officials. The dehumanising practice has been defined by the United States as "genocide", however, the Chinese government does not recognise it as "genocide", according to ANI. Furthermore, the China Tribunal, which was represented at the conference by human rights lawyer Hamid Sabi, Counsel to the Tribunal, acknowledged China's actions as being "close to a genocide". 

A coalition of a human rights group called for a boycott of the Winter Olympics that is scheduled to be hosted by Beijing in 2022. The human rights group had said that the people participating in the games would be endorsing China's genocide against the Uyghur community, according to ANI. The coalition, representing Uyghurs, Tibetans, and residents of Hongkong had issued a joint statement in May, wherein they said that the Chinese government is committing genocide against the Uyghur community. 

In February, the Canadian and Netherlands Parliament adopted motions that acknowledged the Uyghur crisis as genocide. Earlier this year, the United States had accused the Chinese actions in Xinjiang of "genocide". The US government and parliament in Britain have declared that China's policies against the Uyghurs amount to genocide. China has been accused of carrying out a crackdown on Uyghur Muslims by sending them to detention camps and interfering in their religious activities. 

(With Inputs from ANI)

Image: AP