Can Human Rights Be Respected At International Events?

The 2014 FIFA World Cup soccer games were held from June 12 to July 13, 2014 in Brazil. Construction of 12 venues welcomed over 35,000 spectators to each of the 64 soccer matches. According to numerous websites, the Brazilian government paid over 30 billion real (14 billion won) on the event, with most of the funding going to the stadiums. FIFA spent about 8.3 billion real (4 billion won) alone on the final match between Argentina vs. Germany.

While the FIFA Games received a great number of celebratory fans, Brazil’s 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup Opening Ceremony also sparked demonstrations. The 2014 FIFA World Cup Opening Ceremony included no opening speeches because Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff and FIFA President Sepp Blatter were booed into silence when they tried to talk.

Why the outcry? There is a deep inequality present in Brazil’s wealthy and poor social classes. Yet Brazil is successfully bridging the gap. The United Center for the Latin America and Caribbean (ECLAC) stated in 2005 that 38 percent of Brazilians were in poverty, but the same study in 2012 showed 18.6 percent of Brazilians were in poverty. Brazil can also be credited with creating the most national jobs in civil construction. As compiled by Sintracon-SP, Sao Paulo construction industry rose from 1,386 employees in 2012, to 7,133 in 2013, to prepare for the FIFA Games.

While Brazil provided more employment, difficulties still surfaced. According to an Al Jazeera article, analysts observed early on that the main Itaquerao Stadium in Sao Paulo would not be complete for its first World Cup match. Many laborers completed 12-hour shifts and sacrificed holidays in order to open the stadium in time. Tragically, three Brazilians lost their lives while constructing the Itaquerao Stadium. An additional six lives were lost at other stadiums.

“Working 84 hours a week is a clear violation of labor laws. It is clearly not acceptable,” said Jin Sook Lee, a representative from Building and Woodworkers International.

“The construction workers are among the poorest in Brazil and are often not aware of their rights,” said Antonio de Souza Ramalho, president of the Sintracon-SP Civil Construction Workers Union of Sao Paulo.

Despite being contacted, FIFA declined to comment.

Brazil is not the only country to have faced these issues. Korea hosted the 1988 Summer Seoul Olympics and will host the 2018 Winter Pyeongchang Olympics.

During Korea’s first international event in 1988, it was still recovering from a culture full of political corruption and instability from a military dictatorship. Cassandra Schwarz, a University of Alberta student, published a 2009 thesis entitled “Human Rights and the Olympic Games: The Role of International Sporting Events in the Promotion of the Rights of First Nations.” In her analysis, Schwarz stated that the Olympics in Seoul had the opportunity to “promote economic development through the Olympics Games, [showing] South Korea as a model of hope for developing countries aiming at achieving international attention and prestige.”

Kim J. Rhee, who published the Impact of the Seoul Olympic Games on National Development, also stated that the 1988 Olympics “helped rekindle interest in Korean traditional practices, also instilling pride in Korean culture and sweeping away lingering feelings of inferiority towards Western culture.”

However, no country has been left untouched from human rights criticism. According to an article published in the U.K.’s, The Payment, more than two million people were evicted, 48,000 buildings were demolished, and any homeless person, disabled individual found was placed in a prison camp, all to make way for the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

So yes, all countries hosting international events seem to abuse their own people in the process. But here is an important point to consider from Schwarz’s thesis, applicable to any major international event: “The future of human rights involvement in the Olympic Games shows no sign of regressing. The political tone associated with the Games has been there from its inception. However, the role of human rights and the Olympics will change depending on the host nation.”

With Korea soon to be the eighth country to have hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympics, Korea now has the responsibility of realizing the democratic spirit of 1988, by hosting its international events while also honoring its citizens’ human rights.