Tibetan monks have been on a hunger strike to protest the Olympic committee's lack of action on the human rights situation in China. Stating that with the awarding of the Olympic games to China in 2008, the IOC pledged to monitor the human rights situation in China, but the IOC has not followed up on it's promise. In fact in it's current statements and refusal to meet with the protesters, it maintains that it has no role to play in the human rights issue. At issue is the 55 year old Chinese occupation of Tibet and it's extraordinarily harsh treatment of dissenters. One of the monks spent 29 years in a Chinese prison in Tibet.