Amnesty criticizes ‘sportswashing’ at Olympics

Two weeks before the start of the Winter Olympics, human rights organization Amnesty International has called the human rights situation in China „still catastrophic.“ „The Winter Olympics in Beijing must not be used for sportswashing,“ warned Julia Duchrow, Amnesty’s deputy secretary-general in Germany. The new term „sportswashing“ refers to efforts to improve a country’s reputation by organizing a major sporting event. If Beijing wants to use the Games as a flagship event, she said, it has to release all individuals from prison „who were prosecuted and detained merely for peacefully exercising their human rights.“