HRW launches project "Alternative Map of Olympic Torch Relay"

In parallel with the start of the 2014 Winter Olympics Torch Relay, the international Human Rights Watch (HRW) has started its project "Alternative Map of Olympic Torch Relay", aimed to draw attention to human rights problems in the towns and cities visited by the torch of the Sochi Olympics.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on October 5 during a ceremony in Athens, the Olympic Flame was officially handed over to the delegation of the Organizing Committee "Sochi-2014". The first stage of the relay was kicked off on October 7 in Moscow. The relay route will pass through 2900 dwelling settlements of all 83 subjects of Russia.

"The 'Alternative Map of Olympic Torch Relay' reflects the scale of the campaign, initiated by the Russian government in 2013, of checking human rights and other independent groups and forcing them to get registered as 'foreign agents'," says the release of the HRW.

A special group comprises stories of facts of torture by the police and unwillingness or inability of the authorities to properly investigate the murders of journalists and human rights activists, such as Natalia Estemirova, for whose murder nobody has been prosecuted, notes the above release.

In Sochi, the HRW has documented exploitation of workers at construction of Olympic facilities; individual cases of eviction without fair compensation during clearing the space for Olympic construction; pressure and harassments faced by the environmentalists, human rights activists and journalists who criticize the preparations for the Olympics or other aspects of the government policies, says the release.