On the occasion of the 62nd anniversary of the popular uprising in Tibet (March 10, 1959), the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) calls on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to publish the human rights pledges by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the run-up to the Games. "In the course of the 2008 Summer Games, the government in Beijing had broken its promise to improve the human rights situation in the country," criticized Jasna Causevic, STP expert on genocide prevention and the Responsibility to Protect. "Instead, the situation of the Tibetan people has deteriorated significantly. Further, the Chinese leadership is not even willing to comment on the promises made to the IOC with regard to the Winter Games."

As of 2017, China started to subject Xinjiang's Muslim nationalities to the repressive methods already practiced against the Buddhist population of Tibet for quite a while. "The system was transformed into a comprehensive system of forced labor, which has now been transferred back to Tibet. More than half a million people are already affected," Causevic stated. "The least IOC President Thomas Bach could do in the light of these disastrous conditions would be to make public what the Chinese government promised with regard to the current human rights issues."

The popular uprising 62 years ago, in the course of which the Dalai Lama had to flee Tibet, had been answered with massive violence. Since then, thousands of nuns and monks have been abducted from Buddhist monasteries, and more than one million people had to give up their traditional nomadic way of life. They were forcibly resettled to so-called model villages. Since 2009, a total number of 155 people have self-immolated to protest against the repression. The Tibetan language has been banned from schools almost completely, and language activists have to fear prison sentences.

"This new approach to repression is based on a comprehensive security apparatus in connection with digital data systems and social control mechanisms for all citizens," Causevic explained. "The government is intervening in people's lives to change the lifestyles and habits of the entire Tibetan population over time." According to Causevic, the combination of forced labor, social control, generational segregation, the comprehensive security apparatus and the pervasive surveillance measures are also intended to systematically affect the people's spiritual practices. The self-determined and authentic Tibetan culture is at risk of dying out.