Human rights abuses at the Rio 2016 Olympics: activism and the media

Abstract

This article examines activists' use of human rights as a discourse to contest the impacts of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games by drawing on a wider ethnographic project examining activism at Rio 2016. Focusing on two areas of contention, forced evictions and police brutality, the article considers the way activists framed their grievances and how mainstream international media outlets reported those grievances. While activists fighting against forced evictions explicitly used the language of rights in their activism, media accounts tended not to discuss these issues using this lexicon. Conversely, grassroots activists protesting around the issue of police brutality did not tend to frame their grievances in terms of rights, but these issues were discussed as human rights abuses in the media. This points to a dual role played by activists fighting forced evictions: while they are fighting to keep their own homes, they are also part of a wider discursive battle for the right to housing to be recognised and respected

Mega-events brand meaning co-creation: the Olympic case

“…Criticisms have also been leveled at the IOC's organizational processes (Tavares, 2006), failure of the Olympic movement's peace-making achievements (Spaaij, 2012), and commercialization and commodification of the OG through advertising (Maguire et al, 2008). More recently, concerns raised around the treatment of Olympic stakeholders, particularly athletes and host community residents, have emerged in a growing body of literature relating to human rights issues (Davidson and McDonald, 2017;McGillivray et al, 2019;Snell, 2020;Talbot and Carter, 2018). These criticisms have resulted in fewer applicant cities and instances of competing host cities withdrawing Olympic bids (e.g., McGillivray et al, 2019).…”

Talking about the ‘rotten fruits’ of Rio 2016: Framing mega-event legacies

“…Not only did Rio 2016 fail to capitalise on opportunities for these positive legacies, it actively harmed development in a range of ways. The linked impacts of favela evictions (Magalhaes 2013) and gentrification encouraged by pacification of favelas (Gaffney 2015) form two sides of the same coin, creating a process of formalization marked by state violence (Talbot and Carter 2018). While organisers in Rio made grand plans to address ecological issues through the Games, "a monstrous abyss emerged between Rio 2016's bold environmental promises and the on-the-ground reality" (Boykoff and Mascarenhas 2016).…”

“…Despite the prominence of such claims, a range of studies over several Olympic events show that many of the legacies claimed by supporters of mega-events are either short-term or never come into effect (Cohen and Watt 2017;Tomlinson 2016;Minnaert 2012). Alongside this, another body of literature shows that there are a great many negative impacts associated with mega-events, from public debt and militarization to evictions and gentrification (Talbot and Carter 2018;Zimbalist 2015;Kennelly 2015;Boykoff 2013;Toohey and Taylor 2012). These negative impacts are also legacies and should not be excluded from a clear-eyed analysis of the effects of hosting mega-events.…”

“…(for a more detailed discussion of the groups mentioned seeTalbot andCarter 2018 andTalbot 2018). Interviewees details I conduct this ethnographic research explicitly, inBecker's (1967) terms, on the side of those protesting against the Olympic Games, following other scholars in the field (see Boykoff 2018).…”

Politicization of a Contested Mega Event: The 2018 FIFA World Cup on Twitter

“…In 2012, EU representatives urged for a boycott of the Union of European Football Association's (UEFA) Euro (which was hosted partly in the Ukraine) due to the imprisonment of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko. Brazil had to face severe accusations for its decision to displace more than 60,000 people in and around Rio de Janeiro for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics, among them particularly the most disadvantaged inhabitants of several favelas (Talbot & Carter, 2018). 3 The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar filled newspaper headlines years before its opening with reports of exploited, injured, and killed workers on the stadium and infrastructure construction sites (Heerdt, 2018).…”