(ATR) The International Olympic Committee should do all in its power to stop police violence and the forced eviction of children and families from neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro, an international child rights organization says.
The ongoing street clean-up and destruction of homes near venues ahead of the Olympics is displacing families and posing a health and safety threat, strategic alliance officer for Terre des Hommes International Federation Andrea Florence tells Around the Rings.
"In Rio alone, at least 4,120 families have already been evicted from their homes and 2,486 are still threatened with forced removals to make way for projects directly or indirectly associated with the Olympic Games," Florence tells ATR.
"Because of these evictions, many of these children living in these areas have no access to water, no infrastructure, or are no longer available to go to school," she says, adding that debris in the streets is dangerous, especially for children. "So because of this, a second impact could be that many of these children could become, in the future, victims of exploitation, of child labor and sexual violence."
Florence says the Rio neighborhood of Vila Autodromo as a vivid example of the actions that need to be stopped.
Villa Autodromo is adjacent to the Olympic Park, and Florence says "they can co-exist," but earlier this year municipal authorities erected part of the park’s perimeter fence through the neighborhood, cutting off three houses. Now enclosed in the park, residents of the three houses must drive 20 minutes to reach a checkpoint in order to leave, and visitors are not allowed in without a permit.
"For us, it’s clearly the example that counters the IOC’s main argument, that it is not connected to the Olympics," Florence says. "For us this is really showing that it is linked and [there] is something that needs to be done there, not only by the local governments but also the IOC."
Among the changes Terre des Hommes wants to see is for the IOC and other sport governing bodies to consider human rights when awarding host city contracts. The group wants host cities to make a binding commitment to conduct external, independent human rights monitoring and "ensure access to remedy" if violations are found.
Listen to the podcast with Florence below:
Written by Melissa Gray
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