Human Rights Watch (HRW) has proposed to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that human rights be monitored in host countries. HRW wants to prevent abuses such as those committed during 2008 Beijing Olympics against Tibetans, Uyghur people and pro-democracy and human rights activists from happening again. HRW officials are concerned about 2014 Winter Games which will be held at Sochi, a Russian city in the Krasnodar Krai (North Caucasus) that sprawls along the shores of the Black Sea.

Human Rights Watch has submitted a proposal to the Copenhagen Olympic Congress –the meeting in which Rio de Janeiro was chosen as the host city of the 2016 Olympics– to set up a permanent mechanism to watch over host countries “before, during and after” Olympic Games. A report issued by HRW informs that Beijing Games led to the worsening of human rights in China, mainly because of imprisonment of human rights activists and critics of the Olympics, eviction of thousands of Beijing residents and exploitation of migrant workers.

Research on human rights conducted by the international organization has warned against eventual violations in Sochi’s 2014 Winter Games, such as the lack of transparency around expropriating property for Olympic sites, and the conditions for workers building Olympics-related facilities. The study also underpins the worsening of human rights in the Caucasus and the persecution and murdering of journalists and human rights activists.

Circassians raised the alarm
Much before HRW issued its concerns, several campaigns had already raised the alarm over the threat to collective and individual human rights, the environment and local economy the Sochi Games could cause. The Circassian community from the Caucasus, for instance, had launched a campaign in 2007 called Olympic Genocide (website out of order), which reminded that the Sochi region is the site where the Tsarist regime massacred 90% of the Circassian population in 1864, calling for the celebration to be cancelled.

Further information:

• HRW: Olympic Congress: Monitor Host Countries on Rights
• Information over the Circassian genocide at Circassian Cultural Institute
• Nationalia:Canada's aboriginal peoples prepared to repeat Tibetan protests at Vancouver Winter Olympics