International human rights foundation, Global Rights Compliance, has released an investigation into the Russian and Belarusian athletes competing at the 2024 Paris Olympics, who it says have violated the ‘Principles of Participation’, set up following Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
GRC’s investigation shows that, of the 31 Russian and Belarusian athletes who have been declared eligible by the IOC have subsequently accepted their invitation, the majority of athletes have violated neutrality rules. The evidence shows that two thirds of Russians and almost half of the Belarusian athletes set to compete at the 33rd modern Olympic games as ‘Individual Neutral Athletes’ have violated the IOC’s neutrality rules.
Releasing the evidence, Global Rights Compliance has stressed that this is “a measure of last resort”, which not only considers the global impact of such an event and the relevant public interest in this information, but also follows multiple attempts to warn the IOC that some athletes it has cleared to compete violate its own rules of neutrality regarding the war in Ukraine.
The Communication Group plc supported Global Rights Compliance with a tailored media engagement strategy for ‘going public’ with their evidence, to ensure maximum public awareness and impact. Online and print coverage for GRC’s announcement has been achieved across international media, including Bloomberg, Reuters, Business Insider, Mail Online, The Times, USA Today, AFP, and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, among others.
