Lausanne, Switzerland, December 14, 2022: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced the composition of its Advisory Committee on Human Rights.
The nine members include Korea’s IOC Member Ryu Seung-Min, Chair of the Olympic Council of Asia Entourage Committee and member of the OCA Executive Board.
This follows the approval of its Strategic Framework on Human Rights by the IOC Executive Board in September 2022. The Advisory Committee’s mission is to provide the IOC with strategic guidance and advise on human rights risk management.
Created in 2018 as a direct result of Olympic Agenda 2020, the IOC Advisory Committee is composed of nine members with a majority of independent external experts, including representatives from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), civil society and TOP Partners.
All have been selected for their knowledge of sport and human rights. Four of them are IOC members, including two athletes. Six are women and three are men, coming from all the continents.
The Committee will be chaired by the former United Nations (UN) Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, and she will bring a wealth of expertise to the Committee. She was UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women from August 2013 to August 2021, and prior to that served as Deputy President of South Africa, where her focus was on combating poverty.
Dr Mlambo Ngcuka succeeds the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, HRH Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, who decided not to continue in this position. Prince Al Hussein played an instrumental role in building the basis for the IOC Strategic Framework on Human Rights.
The nine members include:
*Dr Seree NONTHASOOT is a human rights expert whose work has been widely recognised in both Thailand and ASEAN. He served in the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) as Thailand’s representative from 2013 to 2018, during which time he pioneered AICHR’s work on business and human rights and supported engagement with civil society. On 14 September 2020, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) elected him to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) for the 2021-2024 term.
*RYU Seung-Min (Korea, IOC Member) has been the first Vice Chair of the IOC Athletes’ Commission since 2021. In addition, he serves on the following IOC commissions: Sustainability and Legacy, Olympic Education, Olympic Programme and Coordination of the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad Los Angeles 2028, and on the Board of Directors of Olympic Channel Services S.L. (Spain). He is an Olympic champion in table tennis (Athens 2004).
Source: www.ioc.org