AP Auto Racing Writer (AP) —Formula One is a “duty” to raise awareness of human rights issues as the series concludes the season in the Middle East, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton said Thursday. ..
F1 concludes the season with its first match in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, followed by the season finale in Abu Dhabi. The series has been held in Abu Dhabi since 2009. F1 has been racing in Bahrain since 2004 and now has four stops in the Middle East. ..
Hamilton had previously spoken on human rights issues and helped release political prisoners earlier this year.
“There are problems with these places we go to, as they are all over the world, but of course (the Middle East) seems to be considered the worst in this part of the world,” Hamilton said prior to Sunday’s race. Said, the beginning of a 10-year contract between F1 and Qatar.
“When these sports go to these places, we have a duty to raise awareness of these issues, and I think these places need scrutiny and the media needs to speak.”
Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been accused of “sportswashing” human rights records by projecting a positive image of the country using high-profile sporting events. Qatar will host the World Cup next year.
“Equal rights are a serious problem,” Hamilton said. “They are taking a step forward. It cannot be changed overnight. I heard that there is something like a new reform by the” Kafala “system that was (yet) implemented a few years ago.
“There’s a long way to go. If we’re coming to these places, I feel we need to raise awareness of the situation. We’re still spotlighting it and hopefully making changes. I think we can create that scrutiny and that pressure that we can create. “
Last year, Hamilton received a letter personally addressed to three alleged torture survivors in Bahrain and a hand-painted photo of his Mercedes car from a young Bahraini son on death row. The drawings were shown exclusively to the Associated Press.
Hamilton said in a race in Bahrain last year that human rights are a “big problem” in some of the countries F1 visits and “we have to do more as a sport.”
Najayusuf, one of the three prisoners who wrote to Hamilton, reunited with his 18-year-old son Kamir Juma in September after being released from prison in Bahrain. He has been imprisoned and tortured since December 2019 for what Amnesty International considered “retaliation against his mother.”
His mother spent more than two years in jail for criticizing the Bahrain F1 race on social media.
According to Sayed Ahmed Al Wadaei of the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, AP asked Hamilton about Yusuf and other victims of torture who wrote him last season, and AP’s report affected the release of Yusuf’s son.
The institute said concerns about human rights remain a priority. In an email to AP on Thursday, the institute was a former director of mechanical engineering at the University of Bahrain and was in the plight of “entering the 134th day of the hunger strike in protest of the confiscation of his political handwriting by prison authorities.” Was raised. Manuscript of Bahrain dialect. “
Hamilton and Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas on Thursday was the only driver of the 20 in the F1 grid to address human rights issues directly in the region.
“I agree that there is a lot of work to be done to raise awareness of the situation around the world. I definitely support it,” Bottas said. “As a sport, I think we are trying to show that we are truly equal and that it is possible.”
Human rights issues other than F1 have also been focused on, and football fans in German giant Bavarian Munich recently tried to do so by asking the club to break ties with Qatar’s state-owned airline.
Amnesty International released a report in August accusing Qatari authorities of conducting little investigation into the deaths of thousands of young migrant workers in the country over the past decade. This includes preparing for the World Cup.
Human rights activists have accused Saudi Arabia of having FIFA President Gianni Infantino in a promotional video and said Saudi Arabia has undergone significant changes. Premier League football club Newcastle has also recently faced close scrutiny of Saudi Arabia’s ownership.
Hamilton admitted on Thursday that he was not always educated on the matter. A Briton and the only black driver on the F1 grid, he takes a very public position on social justice issues such as racism and support for the LGBTQ community.
“I’ve been to many of these countries, I’m ignorant, and I’ve had some problems (I wasn’t aware of it),” he said. “It depends on educating ourselves and deciding to take more responsibility for the sport. It takes time to get out and learn more about foreign regions for us. We have these I’m not from the area. There are religions in these places and it’s very complicated on earth. It’s so much complexity that it’s difficult to even understand them all.
“One person can only make some differences, but overall we can make a bigger impact,” Hamilton added. “Would you like more sportsmen and women to speak up about these issues? Yes.”
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Hamilton: F1 “Limits of Duty” to Raise Human Rights Awareness | WGN Radio 720
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