The International Olympic Committee has been urged to forbid future Olympic Games hosts from carrying out forced evictions of people from their homes while preparing to stage the games. The Geneva-based Centre of Housing Rights and Evictions said that Beijing had admitted that at least 400,000 people had been removed from their homes in connection with the 2008 Summer Olympics. 'Removing people from their homes against their will is not only a human rights violation, but contrary to the Olympic spirit as well,' Scott Leckie, the group's director, said. The IOC should realise that it had a role to play in making sure housing rights of the people in the host city were not violated, he said. 'The IOC must become housing rights promoters and not violators. Hopefully, they will have a selection process for winter and summer Olympics that ensures the people's housing rights are not compromised in the name of Olympics,' he said. The Beijing organisers have no plans to review China National Petroleum Corporation's 'partner' status for the 2008 games, despite the fact the company has admitted it was responsible for the potentially lethal toxic slick that poisoned the Songhua River. The company tried to play down the environmental disaster for several days even though benzene levels were initially 108 times above the safety level. When asked if there were any ethical considerations attached to the sponsorship arrangements for Beijing's much-touted 'Green Olympics', a Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games spokesman refused to comment.