An international trade union wants IOC President Thomas Bach to intervene and investigate alleged labor and safety violations at venues being built for next year's Tokyo Olympics.
The Building and Wood Workers' International has been critical for several years of workers' rights at Olympic venues. In face-to-face meetings and in writing it has asked local organizers, Tokyo's municipal government, and the Japan Sport Council, for outside inspections of construction sites and the right to interview workers.
"However, our attempts to achieve justice for complainants have been consistently rebuffed by the three implementing agencies," the international union said in an open letter this week to Bach.
The union asks the International Olympic Committee to "intervene and directly address human rights abuses when local organizing committee fail to do so."
The letter says three workers have died during the construction process, and it also alleges that "venues have been built using tropical rainforest timber from companies with a documented history of indigenous and worker rights violations."
"Given all our efforts to cooperate with local organizers, we must conclude that they have no intention of respecting international labor standards. What does that mean for the IOC?"
Mary Harvey, the chief executive of the Centre for Sport and Human Rights, told AP several months ago that "everyone should be taking a serious look at the risks identified by BWI's report, and by everyone, I mean everyone who is a stakeholder, including the IOC, the Japanese government and construction companies."
Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in her keynote address this week at the forum noted sporting events and their sponsors have a responsibility to uphold human rights, including with respect to workers, athletes, fans, and the local communities in areas where sport facilities are located."
Many of BWI's complaints are outlined in a report issued earlier this year titled: "The Dark Side of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics."
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