Multiple human rights organizations are petitioning the National Basketball Association (NBA) to drop Dubai’s government-owned Emirates airline as a sponsor of the league’s in-season tournament, the Emirates NBA Cup, due to allegations of sportswashing.
“The NBA is letting itself be used as a pawn to distract people from what the UAE is doing in the world. This partnership is not innocent – it is sportswashing and it hides the suffering of millions of Sudanese people behind a trophy,” the Speak Out On Sudan petition, which is co-sponsored by 14 organizations, says on its website.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has repeatedly denied that it is playing any role in Sudan’s civil war, particularly accusations that it provides military, financial and logistical support to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been accused of crimes against humanity by a number of human rights organizations.
Sportswashing is
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