Is China Fit to Hold the Olympics? - Bob Brown

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2008/05/20/Is_China_Fi...

Australian Senator Bob Brown argues that China's record on human rights holds it in violation of the Olympic Charter - and therefore, not fit to hold the Olympic Games.

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Prince Charles has declined to attend the Beijing games as a protest against perceived human rights abuses. Steven Spielberg heads a list of celebrities urging others to stay away. There has been unprecedented worldwide public protest over China's human rights abuses.

However, are China’s failings any greater than those of other nations that have hosted the Olympics? What of China's great strengths -- do they count for nothing? Where does the balance lie?

Should sport be 'quarantined' from the politics of such matters? And in any case, who are we to judge such matters when there are so many problems in our own backyard? - Intelligence Squared Australia

Senator Bob Brown has been a life-long activist and has become a leading voice for human rights in Australia. Earlier this year, his "Tibet Motion," calling for the Australian Government to take reasonable action against repression of Tibetan people by China, passed the Senate without dissent.

He has long been involved in conservation, and in 1986, he was shot at and assaulted during logging protests. He became the director of the Wilderness Society, which organised the blockade of the dam-works on Tasmania's wild Franklin River in 1982, where he was arrested and spent nineteen days in Risdon Prison. While serving in the Tasmanian parliament, he successfully campaigned for a large increase in the protected wilderness areas.

Bob Brown was a driving force in forming the Australian Greens in 1992. He has spoken widely for the rights of the Tibetan people and against human rights abuses within China.

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