00:00So, when athletes are competing at the Olympics or anywhere else, they don't surrender their
00:06basic human rights.
00:07And those human rights include the right to privacy, the right to dignity, and the right
00:12to compete without horrific online harassment and abuse.
00:17And it's very sad to see that one of the stories of these Paris Games has been the terrible
00:23treatment of two athletes who are just trying to compete in the sport of boxing.
00:28They have been in the Olympic system for many years, competing, they win, they lose.
00:33It has never been an issue before.
00:35Overseas Press Club bought board with Paris Games.
00:38Yeah, yeah.
00:39Oh, amazing.
00:40I love you.
00:41Good to hear that.
00:42Yeah, I think, so, for many decades, women and athletes in particular have been scrutinized
00:48about how they look.
00:49Are your muscles too big?
00:51Are you swimming too fast?
00:52I mean, this has always happened.
00:54And I think one of the requirements of participating in sports should be that you have the ability
01:01to do so without harmful abuse.
01:03And I think we've seen the online abuse, including by state actors, of women who are just trying
01:12to compete for their country.
01:14It's shocking and actually quite unprecedented.
01:16But I think it's very important that the countries have actually stood up for their athletes
01:21and defended their right to compete, and actually said, these athletes meet all of
01:26the tests that they were required to meet, and so therefore they really should not be
01:30harassed and abused.
01:31And this seems a classic case of where access, safety, and equality are all a threat.
01:44So I think it's very important for the human rights community and for women everywhere
01:47to stand up for the right to compete.
01:50And also the right not to be thrown out of a sport by men who are not using any human
01:55rights-based standards.
02:03International federations, sporting federations, whatever the sport, swimming, boxing, world
02:08athletics, whatever the federation is, it exists for a single purpose.
02:13And that is to support athletes.
02:15What we've seen in Paris is this is a federation that is not supporting the women boxers.
02:20So that federation is not legitimate, and it's not doing the one job it has, which is
02:26to support women boxers.
02:28It's also, I think very importantly, not complying with international human rights and with the
02:33International Olympic Committee's human rights framework, which is in place.
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