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Article

5 Aug 2008

Author:
Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director, Human Rights Watch, in Huffington Post

Sponsoring the Olympics Is Bad for Business

[T]he main Olympic sponsors and suppliers all…profess great interest in corporate social responsibility and human rights. But without exception, they are all putting their considerable public relations and lobbying muscle towards ducking any social responsibility for sponsoring the Games in [China]…[T]he TOP sponsors are Atos Origin, Coca-Cola, General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, Kodak, Lenovo, McDonald's, Omega (Swatch Group), Panasonic (Matsushita), Samsung, and Visa…Olympic sponsors have not only an opportunity but a duty to speak out about human rights abuses in China…Even if these companies care more about their own interests, rather than principles, they still have plenty of reasons to seize this opportunity to make China a more attractive place to do business.