Quote:
Originally Posted by PhilipR
I think when looking at the issue of Human Rights I think we should look at who is the organiser and who is the beneficiary
In Europe and US, I believe majority of GPs are organised by private organisations using mainly private funds. The state or local council only contributes little to it. However in more recent GPs, the state is active in organising these events(SA, Qatar, Russia, Abu Dhabi) and they use these events to promote their countries. In this case I believe the situation becomes political and should be fair to be questioned on matters such as Human Rights
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Agreed. And aside from human rights there's democracy, civil rights etc. To me it seems a lot better to have some standards instead of none, and not reduce the question to the sort of what-about-ism that trivialises just about everything.
The (worst) issue is for me when an incredibly non-democratic state uses state funds to host a Grand Prix. It's sports-washing meant to elevate the country in the eyes of the world while using money coming of the back of people who get little benefit from their state. I think it's tragic that many sports (F1, football among them) have such low standards in this regard.
I think Freedom House's world ranknings are a worthwile look for many people. A quick read of any of the country profile towards the bottom hosting F1 should be chilling to most people.
https://freedomhouse.org/country/aze...dom-world/2022