IOC President Thomas Bach joined the first meeting of the IOC Advisory Committee on Human Rights at Olympic House in Lausanne ©IOC/Greg Martin

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Advisory Committee on Human Rights has come together for the first time at Olympic House in Lausanne.

"The committee will be instrumental in helping us further take into account human rights considerations in our day-to-day activities," IOC President Thomas Bach insisted.

The meeting was led by Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka, former United Nations (UN) under-secretary-general and executive director of UN Women.

"We are extremely pleased to formally start advising the IOC on human rights matters within the remit of the IOC," Ngcuka said.

"The task is large and the Advisory Committee will do its utmost to guide the IOC in the implementation of its strategic framework on human rights."

The International Olympic Committee have often faced protests about their position on human rights ©Getty Images
The International Olympic Committee have often faced protests about their position on human rights ©Getty Images

In the initial meeting, held over a day and a half, the committee heard from UN Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights Alexandra Xanthaki about "her views regarding the situation of athletes with Russian or Belarusian passports in the context of the illegal war Russia is waging against Ukraine."

Xanthaki had previously written to the IOC to "express serious concern," over the outright ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials.

Delegates also heard reports on safeguarding athletes and "specific challenges to athletes’s rights" in Afghanistan and Iran.

There were also contributions from Paris 2024 and organisers of the 2026 Youth Olympics in Dakar. 

The committee also considered the Olympic Charter which is set for a revision, the first update since August 2021.

The IOC Framework on Human Rights was adopted last September by the IOC Executive Board ©IOC
The IOC Framework on Human Rights was adopted last September by the IOC Executive Board ©IOC

Olympic table tennis champion at Athens 2004 Ryu Seung-Min of South Korea and fellow Olympian, Sarah Walker, a BMX competitor for New Zealand in 2008 and 2012, now a member of the IOC Athletes Commission had joined the inaugural meeting with IOC members Dagmawit Berhane of Ethiopia and Colombia’s Luis Alberto Moreno.

The group also included "independent members" in lawyer Sylvia Schenk, herself an athlete at Munich 1972, Lene Wendland from the UN Office of the High Commission for Human Rights, Seree Nonthasoot from the Association of South East Asian Nations and Clare Iery of sponsors Proctor and Gamble, all specialists in human rights. 

The Advisory Committee was originally established in the wake of Bach’s strategy document Agenda 2020 and its terms of reference were approved by the IOC Executive Board last September.