Unseen Cruelty at the Worlds Biggest Games

Human Rights Watch is an organization that has taken it upon itself to try and protect people's rights all over the world. Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigates injustices and violations of basic rights, and brings it to the attention of those with the ability to re-enstore justice. One of HRW’s core values that caught my eye was there independence. HRW does not accept funding from governments, or individuals that could compromise the objective of fair human rights, and stays neutral in armed conflict. This Youtube video was produced by HRW, displaying the human right violations during the run up to the Sochi Olympics.  The two violations that I found most surprising were the evictions of so many civilians of their homes, and the injustices towards the migrant workers. Russia is home to millions of migrant workers many working in the construction industry. The migrant workers come mainly from poorer parts of Asia looking for an income. During the build up to the Olympics and the building of the Olympic village, thousands of migrant workers came to Sochi seeking employment. The migrant workers were not treated fairly, many of them had their passports removed stopping them from leaving, forcing them to finish the work for the Olympics. The video shows the horrible living that the migrant workers are given, and how they were forced to work 12 hour shifts, which is against Russian law. The situation surrounding the migrant workers was extreme and violating Russian law and also the rights of the workers; however, the rights of civilians were violated also. Russian people who had lived in Sochi for there whole life were evicted from the home they had been living in to make room for the Olympic stadiums and village. Even houses that were not demolished suffered from structural damage, some were uninhabitable. The construction made the land unstable, and many houses began to slide down the hillside. When government inspectors came they either declared the land fine and the houses were perfectly livable or declared them uninhabitable but offered no compensation. Russia hoped to keep the Human Rights violations quite, and not draw bad attention to the country, and they did. Never during the Olympic coverage did I hear anything about the Human Rights Violations, only about the amazing facility that was created. Thanks to groups like Human Rights Watch, these problems are being tackled and hopefully in the future these problems wont exist.