IFSC 2019 Climbing World Cup - Human Rights

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 RobScotland 14 Apr 2019

Open letter I published today to IFSC and newsdesks:

From: ...
Sent: 14 April 2019 20:53
To: anne.fuynel@ifsc-climbing.org
Cc: ...
Subject: IFSC 2019 Climbing World Cup in Moscow - Human Rights Abuses in Russian Federation

Open Letter

Dear Anne,

I'd like to thank you and IFSC for the contribution you've made to developing climbing as a sport.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other highly respected international organisations have highlighted extremely serious ongoing human rights abuses in the Russian Federation and in particular the persecution of political opponents and religious minorities and the torture and killing of people in same-gender relationships:

https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/europe-and-central-asia/russian-federa...

"Migrants and refugees were denied protection of their rights. Some forms of domestic violence were decriminalized. LGBTI people continued to face discrimination and violence; gay men in Chechnya were targeted through a co-ordinated campaign of abduction, torture and killings by the Chechen authorities."

https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/russia

https://memohrc.org/en

I'm confident that when the IFSC made the decision to hold the 2019 Climbing World Cup in Moscow the IFSC did not intend to imply support for governments in the Russian Federation however the situation does raise parallels with the decision by the IOC to hold the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin and the way in which this was used to legitimise policies of the Nazi movement both in Germany and worldwide.

As a climber and mountaineer I'd like to ask if IFSC would use your prominence to make a public statement distancing IFSC and climbers from human rights abuses in the Russian Federation and asserting the strong support of IFSC and the global climbing community for freedom of political and religious expression, for same-gender relationships and for human rights. I hope that a statement like this would be widely reported and highlight our support as climbers for these vital principles.

Thank you very much for your help!

Will Robertson

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 tjdodd 15 Apr 2019
In reply to RobScotland:

Are you going to write to them about holding competitions in the USA and China as well?

4
In reply to tjdodd:

And I assume that last year he wrote a similar letter to the UIAA - Russia hosted the Ice Climbing World Championships in 2018.

5
 kerry cooper 15 Apr 2019
In reply to RobScotland:

I also assume that you wrote to the FIFA to protest about Qatar being used as the destination country for the 2022 world cup?

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 La benya 15 Apr 2019
In reply to kerry cooper:

This logic is so ridiculous I’m not sure whether you’re serious or not?!

 La benya 15 Apr 2019
In reply to Graeme Alderson:

Are you serious? 

 The Norris 15 Apr 2019
In reply to La benya:

The whataboutery is strong in this thread!

 La benya 15 Apr 2019
In reply to The Norris:

If you really cared about whataboutery you would have written on every other thread. If not, you’re a fraud who is just lobbying on behalf of big pharma (or whatever) *takes hit on joint and goes on to read the thread about Corbyn which has inexplicably ended in conspiracy theories about 9/11*

1

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