UN refuses to probe ban on Russian Paralympians from Rio

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) refused to investigate ban on the Russian Paralympic team at the 2016 Rio Games, chairperson of Russia's Civic Committee for family, children and motherhood Diana Gurtskaya has said.

In August, Gurtskaya sent a letter to CRDP Chairperson Maria Soledad Cisternas Reyes, asking her to probe the ban on Russian Paralympians. The CPRD answered that it could not reconsider decisions of the organisations such as the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), reports Sputnik.

"That is an informal and incorrect answer -- we are taking as a premise that concrete member states of the International Paralympic Committee have roughly violated the direct ban on discrimination on the basis of disability," Gurtskaya said on Saturday.

"These countries are members of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and their actions must be assessed by the United Nations' supervisory body. We will seek justice with the help of the Russian Foreign Ministry and our representatives in the United Nations."

In July, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) presented a report accusing Russia of running a state-wide doping programme and urging the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to consider a blanket ban on the entire Russian team. The IOC instead opted to let individual sports federations decide on the matter.

In its turn, the IPC banned all Russian Paralympic athletes from the 2016 Summer Paralympics and 2018 Winter Games. On August 23, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected a Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) appeal against IPC ban on Russia's athletes.

--IANS

sam/vt