53K3133 | Demobel

Proposition de résolution relative aux Jeux olympiques d'hiver en Russie.

General information ¶

Authors: Ecolo Juliette Boulet
Groen Eva Brems
Submission date: Nov. 13, 2013
Official page: Visit
Status: Rejected
Requirement: Simple
Subjects: Olympic games Russia resolution of parliament human rights

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt: CD&V Vooruit LE PS | SP Open Vld N-VA LDD MR
Voted to reject: Groen Ecolo
Abstained from voting: VB

Party dissidents ¶

Bernard Clerfayt (MR) voted to reject.
Olivier Maingain (MR) voted to reject.

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Discussion ¶

Feb. 20, 2014 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

Juliette Boulet Ecolo ⚙

Mr. Speaker, dear colleagues, with regard to this proposal for a resolution on the ongoing Winter Olympic Games in Russia, the discussion took place in the Committee on Foreign Relations a few days before the opening of the Sochi Olympic Games. It has been an interesting signal that this Foreign Relations Committee votes this resolution and the requests it contains two days before the Sochi Olympic Games.

The same arguments were used: the fact that another resolution resembles it – not that of an ecologist but we joined it – and the fact that a resolution had also been voted in the Senate. The majority used this argument to reject our resolution.

I recall that this resolution went further, since it demanded the boycott of the opening ceremony in the name of the liberticide laws that are being put in place and the invitation to delete statements showing sympathy for LGBT, legislation put in place by the Russian government and Vladimir Putin as a superpower.

According to other arguments, it would have been ridiculous to say that Belgium would not attend the opening of the Winter Olympics, since it was not customary that we were invited there and that therefore, we never went there. However, I will clarify that our Minister of Foreign Affairs had announced, at the 2012 Football Euro, which was held in Ukraine, that he would not go there due to the situation in Ukraine already in 2012 and the precise situation of Yulia Tymoshenko.

If these are political acts made by Minister Reynders two years ago, they are also political acts made on the occasion of the Sochi Olympic Games by David Cameron and Barack Obama. Indeed, they made known, whether they were invited or not, that they would not go there and that, in addition, they expressed all their support to various sports personalities who had made public their belonging to the homosexual community.

I therefore hoped that this resolution would be voted by my colleagues a few days before the Olympic Games in Sochi. I obviously thought that my socialist colleagues, who had split themselves from a fairly interesting press release, would join the act with the speech by supporting our resolution. I quote an excerpt from their press release, which is available on the internet: “As such, the Socialist MPs are asking themselves about the well-foundedness of a Belgian diplomatic presence at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Sochi.”

Amnesty, a few days before the opening of the Olympic Games, was concerned that harassment against civil society activists has intensified. It has intensified during the Olympic Games in Sochi, which are still underway.

Furthermore, I think we were right in expressing all these concerns. A former Italian MP, a LGBT rights advocate, was arrested while attending the Olympic Games with, in the tribunes, a banner with the inscription "Gay is OK" in Russian. She was detained a few days before being released. The entire procedure to establish contacts with her was established in Italy, involving in particular the services of the Italian Foreign Minister.

Finally, the deterioration of the situation in Ukraine shows that Putin does not observe an Olympic truce. There is therefore no reason for us to keep silent on the occasion of an event in his glory.

Again, Mr. Speaker, dear colleagues, I invite you to vote against the rejection of this resolution. I thank you.