Two UN experts commended the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Wednesday for considering the admission of athletes from the Russian Federation and Belarus in sports competitions as “neutral” contestants.
Against the backdrop of the ongoing and deadly Russian invasion of Ukraine, the experts urged the IOC to adopt a decision in that direction, and to go further.
With IOC permission, the athletes would be able to get a chance to participate in the Paris Olympic Games in 2024. Following the UN experts’ discussions with the IOC Executive Board, the world sports body issued a statement on Saturday referring to the need to respect the rights of all athletes to be treated without any discrimination, in line with the Olympic Charter.
In its statement, IOC said “no athlete should be prevented from competing just because of their passport” and that “a pathway for athletes’ participation in competition under strict conditions should therefore be further explored.”
The Olympic Charter must be the guide, the Special Rapporteurs said. They consider the recent IOC statement a reversal of the world sports committee’s recommended ban on athletes and officials from those countries, which came days after the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“The IOC recommendation raised serious issues of direct discrimination,” the UN experts said. “We understand the desire to support Ukrainian athletes and the Ukrainian Olympic community, who suffer terribly from the war, together with all other Ukrainians, but the Olympic Committee and more widely the Olympic community have also the compelling obligation to abide by the Olympic Charter, and more widely international human rights norms prohibiting discrimination.”
Referring to the IOC condition that only Russian and Belarussian athletes who have not actively supported the war in Ukraine would be permitted to compete in a neutral capacity, the experts urged the IOC to take more steps to align its recommendations with international human rights standards on non-discrimination. “When States so flagrantly ignore human rights, we have a greater obligation to stand in support of our common values,” the experts said.
IOC: sanctions not negotiable
Meanwhile, IOC issued a statement on Tuesday, reiterating that "the sanctions against the Russian and Belarusian States and Governments are not negotiable. They have been unanimously confirmed by the recent Olympic Summit meeting on 9 December 2022."
The statement on the IOC ban - which, among other things, prohibits the Russian Federation and Belarus from hosting international sports competitions - came soon after the Olympic Council of Asia had invited Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete in the region.
In recent news reports, Ukraine’s leadership condemned the Olympic Council of Asia’s decision to include Russian and Belarusian athletes.
