Tibetan Activists Chain Themselves to Olympic Rings Outside the International Olympic Committee Headquarters

15-12- 2021

Elle van der Cam

Tibet and Human Rights Researcher

Global Human Rights Defence.

This past Saturday, the 11th of December 2021, two Tibetan students chained themselves to the Olympic rings outside the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to call for the international boycott of the Beijing Winter Games 2022. The pair calls on the world to not promote an authoritarian regime through this event. The activists stand strongly against China due to its human rights abuses and treatment of minorities. While the two were chained to the grand rings in front of the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, other protesters from Members of the Tibetan Youth Association in Europe (TYAE) and Students for a Free Tibet performed a sit-in at the entrance of the building at the same time. The protesters have called the olympic event the “Genocide Games” which are being used to burnish China’s reputation (Taipei Times, 2021). The protesters also state that by collaborating with China, the IOC is making itself an accomplice to the Chinese Communist Party’s crimes, which will be sports-washed by the Beijing Olympics (Taipei Times, 2021). 

Sources and further reading:

Tibetan students chain themselves to Olympic rings, Taipei Times. 13 December 2021, https://www.aninews.in/news/world/asia/over-1800-tibetans-detained-in-chinese-prisons-human-rights-organization20211212175223/