Britain to Ban Leaders Who ‘Committed Human Rights Abuses’ From Olympics

Won't Specify Which Leaders Are Targeted

In an effort to further politicize sporting events in the face of growing calls for a boycott of the Euro 2012 tournament, the British government has announced that it is going to ban certain unnamed leaders who “are guilty of human rights abuses” from attending the 2012 Olympics.

Where there is independent, reliable and credible evidence that an individual has committed human right abuses, the individual will not be permitted to enter the UK,” insisted Foreign Office minister Jeremy Browne.

The comments seem to be aimed at Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who expressed interest in attending the event. At the time Britain was silent on the interest, but did say that it could prevent anyone from attending the Olympics if it was for “the public good.”

Yet “independent, reliable and credible evidence” isn’t hard to come by among world leaders, and would seem to preclude President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, among countless other, from attending.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.