The Olympics, human rights and history

Abstract

International sports have long been sites of human rights struggle. With the promise of “fair play” and universal humanism pledged by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), in the global, media-charged atmosphere where athletes and teams are given and bear tremendous symbolic status, those facing discrimination and exclusion and their allies take advantage of the spotlight to assert their right to full recognition. The costly staging of these events raises other demands, including the right to adequate public services, free speech and assembly, and fair labour conditions in the production of facilities and uniforms. The international boycotts against the Olympics in Nazi Germany in 1936 and athletes from apartheid South Africa during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s are the best-known examples of sports-related activism, but Olympic historians point out that similar campaigns have been mounted against virtually every major event since the creation of the modern Olympics in Athens in 1896. The 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Sochi and the World Cup in Brazil were no exception.