U.S. Dept. of State - IIP: The United States and China

Text: Proposed Senate Resolution Says China Should Not Host 2008 Olympics
(Senate Concurrent Resolution 27 cites rights record)

China should not be allowed to host the 2008 Olympic Games unless the Chinese government releases all political prisoners, ratifies the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and observes internationally recognized human rights, according to a proposed Senate resolution.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 27 (S. Con. Res. 27) was introduced March 21 by Senator Jesse Helms (Republican of North Carolina), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and co-sponsored by Senators Tim Hutchinson (Republican of Arkansas), Robert Smith (Republican of New Hampshire), and Paul Wellstone (Democrat of Minnesota), one of the most liberal lawmakers in the United States Senate.

The resolution was referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for consideration.

Parallel legislation was introduced the same day by 41 House members, including Representatives Tom Lantos (Democrat from California), the highest-ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee and co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus; Nancy Pelosi (Democrat from California), chairperson of the Congressional Working Group on China; and Frank Wolf (Republican from Virginia), co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. The proposed measure, titled House Concurrent Resolution 73, was referred to the House International Relations Committee for consideration.

Following is the March 21 text of S. Con. Res. 27, as provided by the Congressional Record:

Expressing the sense of Congress that the 2008 Olympic Games should not be held in Beijing unless the Government of the People's Republic of China releases all political prisoners, ...
(Introduced in the Senate)
SCON 27 IS
107th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. CON. RES. 27

Expressing the sense of Congress that the 2008 Olympic Games should not be held in Beijing unless the Government of the People's Republic of China releases all political prisoners, ratifies the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and observes internationally recognized human rights.

Mr. HELMS (for himself, Mr. WELLSTONE, Mr. HUTCHINSON, and Mr. SMITH of New Hampshire) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

Expressing the sense of Congress that the 2008 Olympic Games should not be held in Beijing unless the Government of the People's Republic of China releases all political prisoners, ratifies the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and observes internationally recognized human rights.

Whereas the International Olympic Committee is in the process of determining the venue of the Olympic Games in the year 2008 and is scheduled to make that decision at the International Olympic Committee meeting scheduled for Moscow in July 2001;

Whereas the city of Beijing has made a proposal to the International Olympic Committee that the summer Olympic Games in the year 2008 be held in Beijing;

Whereas the Olympic Charter states that Olympism and the Olympic ideal seek to foster `respect for universal fundamental ethical principles';

Whereas the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 48/11 (October 25, 1993) recognized `that the Olympic goal of the Olympic Movement is to build a peaceful and better world by educating the youth of the world through sport, practiced without discrimination of any kind and the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding, promoted by friendship, solidarity, and fair play';

Whereas United Nations General Assembly Resolution 50/13 (November 7, 1995) stressed `the importance of the principles of the Olympic Charter, according to which any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, sex, or otherwise is incompatible with the Olympic Movement';

Whereas the Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2000 reports the following:

(1) `The [Chinese] government continued to commit widespread and well-documented human rights abuses, in violation of internationally accepted norms.'.

(2) `Abuses included instances of extra judicial killings, the use of torture, forced confessions, arbitrary arrest and detention, the mistreatment of prisoners, lengthy incommunicado detention, and denial of due process.'.

(4) `The Government maintained tight restrictions on freedom of speech and of the press, and increased its efforts to control the Internet; self-censorship by journalists continued.'.

(5) `The Government severely restricted freedom of assembly and continued to restrict freedom of association.'.

(6) `The Government continued to restrict freedom of religion and intensified controls on some unregistered churches.'.

(8) `The Government does not permit independent domestic nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to monitor publicly human rights conditions.'.

(9) `[The Government has not stopped] violence against women (including coercive family planning practices--which sometimes include forced abortion and forced sterilization).'.

(10) `The Government continued to restrict tightly worker rights, and forced labor in prison facilities remains a serious problem. Child labor exists and appears to be a growing problem in rural areas as adult workers leave for better employment opportunities in urban areas.'.

(11) `Some minority groups, particularly Tibetan Buddhists and Muslim Uighurs, came under increasing pressure as the Government clamped down on dissent and `separatist' activities.';

Whereas the egregious human rights abuses committed by the Government of the People's Republic of China are inconsistent with the Olympic ideal;

Whereas 119 Chinese dissidents and relatives of imprisoned political prisoners, from 22 provinces and cities, issued an open letter on January 16, 2001, signed at enormous political risk which expresses the `grief and indignation for each of China's political prisoners and their families', asks the Chinese Government to release all of China's political prisoners, and asserts that the release of China's political prisoners will improve `Beijing's stature in its bid for the 2008 Olympics'; and

Whereas although the Government of the People's Republic of China signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1998, but has failed to ratify the treaty, and has indicated that it will not fully implement the recently ratified International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), That the Congress--

(1) acknowledges and supports the January 16, 2001, open letter released by Chinese dissidents and the families of imprisoned Chinese political prisoners stating that the release of China's political prisoners would improve Beijing's stature in its bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games;

(2) expresses the view that, consistent with its stated principles, the International Olympic Committee should not award the 2008 Olympics to Beijing unless the Government of the People's Republic of China releases all of China's political prisoners, ratifies the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights without major reservations, fully implements the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and observes internationally recognized human rights;

(3) calls for the creation of an international Beijing Olympic Games Human Rights Campaign in the event that Beijing receives the Olympics to focus international pressure on the Government of the People's Republic of China to grant a general amnesty for all political prisoners prior to the commencement of the 2008 Olympics as well as to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;

(4) calls on the Secretary of State to endorse publicly the creation of the Beijing Olympic Games Human Rights Campaign in the event that Beijing receives the Olympics, and to utilize all necessary diplomatic resources to encourage other nations to endorse and support the campaign as well, focusing particular attention on member states of the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Japan, Canada, Australia, the Nordic countries, and all other countries engaged in human rights dialogue with China;

(5) requests that the President, during his expected participation in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Summit in Shanghai in October 2001, call for the release of all Chinese political prisoners and Chinese ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;

(6) recommends that the Congressional-Executive Commission on the People's Republic of China, established under title III of the U.S.-China Relations Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-286), devote significant resources to monitoring any violations of the rights of political dissidents and political prisoners, or other increased abuses of internationally recognized human rights, in the preparation to the 2008 Olympic Games and during the Olympic Games themselves; and

(7) directs the Secretary of the Senate to transmit a copy of this resolution to the senior International Olympic Committee representative in the United States with the request that it be circulated to all members of the Committee.

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)