18:37, 5 December 2013

AI refuses to boycott the Olympic Games in Sochi

Entrance to the Olympic park in Sochi. Summer of 2013. Photo by Svetlana Kravchenko for the ‘Caucasian Knot’.

The international non-governmental organization Amnesty International (AI) has refused to boycott the Winter Olympics in Sochi. However, the human rights centre continues believing that the situation with the restriction of rights and freedoms in Russia has worsened, said Imke Dirsen, the head of the German branch of the AI.

"This is a sporting event; and it should bring joy," she said on December 4 in Berlin at a press conference on the Day of Human Rights.

However, a spokesman for the organization pointed out that two months before the Olympics Amnesty International notes the sharp restriction of freedom of expression, association and assembly in Russia.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on October 7, the day of the arrival of the Olympic Flame in Moscow, the AI launched a worldwide campaign to highlight the situation with human rights violations in Russia, where the AI called for a boycott of the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Let us remind you that on September 10, human rights activists from the Human Rights Watch also called on the new head of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach to draw attention to human rights violations in the preparation for the Olympic Games.