Rule 50 of the Charter is designed to protect the neutrality of sport and the Olympic Movement and it states: "No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas."

The rule has come into focus in recent weeks following the death of George Floyd in the United States last month.

Floyd, an unarmed black man, died in Minneapolis after a white police officer Derek Chauvin, kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes.

Earlier this month IOC President Thomas Bach said Rule 50 could be reviewed as part of a consultation process due to be conducted by the IOC Athletes Commission.

Athletes Germany say they support Bach's push to review Rule 50 and the ban on political protests.

In a statement they said: "The restriction of freedom of expression in sport can only be tolerated if athletes and associations jointly define possible limits and thus legitimise them through a jointly negotiated consensus.

Athletes Germany highlighted three principles they believe the IOC Athletes Commission and IOC leadership must observe in order to conduct an open and thorough consultation with athletes.

The first area they highlighted was real participation, saying the consultation and any changes to the rule must be based on feedback from athlete representatives.

They also called for participants to be involved in determining the framework of the process before the consultation.

The second principle highlighted was transparency, with Athletes Germany calling for feedback to be "publicly accessible and visible" and for feedback not taken into account to be justified by the IOC's Athletes Commission.

The third principle highlighted by Athletes Germany was in relation to accountability, with the group calling on the IOC Executive Committee to commit to implementing the consultation results.

"It is perilous to limit any possible changes to Rule 50 in advance to the scope of the Olympic Charter," said Johannes Herber, chief executive of Athletes Germany.

"The Charter does not include a commitment to fundamental human rights. 

"While the IOC's principle of non-discrimination is crucially important, it does not cover many other rights worthy of protection."

Athletes Germany also called for the eighth principle of Olympism to be included in the Olympic Charter.

"Previous consultation and participation procedures have fundamentally failed to meet democratic standards," said Maximilian Klein, representative for International Sports Policy for Athletes Germany. 

"The involvement of the athletes around the postponement of the Olympic Games was insufficient and the announced consultation procedure for Rule 40 has not yet taken place. 

"We are of course happy to be convinced otherwise and expect the process to be initiated quickly by the end of June."

Last week, Global Athlete called on the IOC to "immediately abolish" Rule 50, claiming it is a breach of athletes human rights.