Craig HillFIFA World Cup Sparks Human Rights Concerns
June 8th 2006 09:22
from www.wikipedia.com
FIFA fanatics around the world are counting down the hours til the start of the 2006 World Cup in Germany tomorrow. It is without a doubt the event of the year. Millions, maybe even billions of people will be plastered to their television screens for the next 4 weeks cheering on their favourite teams, running around with their shirts over their heads when a goal is scored and swearing crazily when the damn guy misses. But did you know that amidst all this excitement, there are two serious human rights issues that the German government is dealing with?
The first major concern is that there will be an increase in the trafficking of women throughout the games. International organisations such as Amnesty International fear that an estimated 30 000 women and girls will be sexually exploited and forced into prostitution. The reasoning is that there will be such large numbers of people heading to Germany during this time, a high demand will be placed on all services including those from Germany’s red light districts. Amnesty and other organisation throughout Europe are calling upon the German government to do everything they can to monitor the sex industry and prevent the trafficking of women for the purposes of sexual exploitation. This is a grave violation of human rights as it affects a woman’s right to human dignity, physical and mental integrity and other fundamental freedoms regarding a person’s right to life.
The second major concern is that of racial violence. Recent attacks on three males of Ethiopian, Turkish and Korean origin within the nation have sparked concerns for all visitors to the country who are of African or Asian appearance. According to a local German newspaper, Neo-Nazis are planning violent attacks on such racial groups. Again, should these horrific acts take place, they would be a severe violation of fundamental human rights as it would involve discrimination on the basis of a person’s ethnicity or religion. However, German leaders have responded to these concerns announcing there will be no tolerance of any form of xenophobia. A campaign for racial tolerance is being launched in schools throughout the country. FIFA is also doing its part by launching a “Say No To Racism” campaign during the games. Banners will be put up before all matches at the 12 stadiums to remind everyone that the World Cup is a celebration of cultural diversity as much as it is a celebration of sport.
Let’s hope that everyone remembers that.
Oh, and just one more thing. GO AUSTRALIA!
The image used in this post is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike License v 2.5. For full terms please see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/
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Comment by Stanley
The human trafficking is also a sad plight for the women involved. Hard to believe that in an age where no States engage in slavery anymore, there are perhaps more slaves now then any other time in history.
Comment by Legally Brunette
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I wonder if we had similar issues during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games ? I don't actually remember hearing anything about it at the time but applying the logic that a large influx of people is likely to place high demand on services including the sex industry, then yes, I guess slavery was flourishing then too.
Comment by Stanley