North Caucasus Environmental Watch
Open Letter to the International Olympic Committee (IOC)
Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics:
A Celebration of Human Body and Spirit or Complicity in Crimes?
On July 4, 2009 during the 119th session of the IOC, the Sochi
resort was chosen to be the host city for the XXII Winter
Olympic Games. However, numerous events took place since then.
From moral, ethical, and formal points of view, these events
jeopardize the very possibility of conducting Olympic Games
in Russia and, in particular, in Sochi. This position is substantiated
by the following.
I.
Being a supreme authority of Olympic Movement, the IOCs role
is defined by Olympic Charter, which is the constitution of
the IOC. The Charter states that [t]he IOCs role is to
encourage and support a responsible concern for environmental
issues, to promote sustainable development in sport and to
require that the Olympic Games are held accordingly; [and]
to promote a positive legacy from the Olympic Games to the
host cities and host countries. In fact, environment is the
third pillar of the Olympic Movement alongside with sport
and culture. The IOC committed itself numerous times to sustainable
development by establishing its own Agenda 21 and a close
cooperation with UNEP, by conducting World Conference on Sport
and Environment, by integrating environmental requirements
into Candidature and Application files and questionnaire documentation,
and by taking environment and positive legacy of the Games
to the host country, region and the city into account when
selecting the host city. Such positive legacy must outweigh
negative impacts of the Games.
However, large-scale destruction of environment and substantial
environmental damage caused by preparation for Sochi 2014
Winter Olympics has been established.
A. A unique environment is being damaged irreparably over
a large area. According to our information, functionality
of approximately 2000 hectares of the Greater Sochi had been
radically changed; radical land expropriation, destruction
of natural landscapes and appearance of anthropogenic landscapes
have taken place. First of all, this concerns the Mzimta river
valley (deforestation) in the area of construction of a combined
railroad and highway Adler Alpinka Service and Imeretinskaya
valley, where substantial agricultural lands and wetlands
were replaced by compensation housing construction and by
transportation infrastructure and storage facilities. Some
of the territories of the Western Caucasus (UNESCO World Heritage
site) were removed from World Heritage protection, natural
heritage sites are being destroyed, and crushed-stone quarries
are mined in the reserve areas of the national park. That
is, diverse ecosystems were damaged practically irreparably.
New threats of landslides, erosion, avalanches, and mudslide
have appeared on the slopes of mountain ridge Aibga as a result
of continuing deforestation and construction of ski trails,
chair lifts and other objects. Disappearance of specific natural
habitats, even when there are analogous remote natural habitats,
of numerous plant and animal species in Sochi is reaching
critical levels and is leading to local extinction of the
species, which, in its turn, is leading to impoverishment
of biodiversity. This is a consequence of the inability of
the affected species to migrate across regions unfit for their
survival.
B. Bringing into operation major power plants will inevitably
damage the unique Sochi environment. Moreover, the Sochi Bid
Book included no provisions for some of the power plants being
built, such as Kudepstinskaya thermal power station. There
are also reasons to believe that construction of these power
plants serves ends purposefully obscured from the public.
CONCLUSION: In reality, preparation for Sochi 2014 Winter
Olympics strongly contradicts the Olympic Charter and its
requirements for responsible concern for environmental issues.
II.
According to the by-law to rule 33 of the Olympic Charter,
[e]ach applicant city has the obligation to comply with the
Olympic Charter and with any other regulations or requirements
issued by the IOC Executive Board.
However, the facts indicate that legal obligations stipulated
in the Bid Book as well as in the Guarantees File, have been
breached by Russia, Russian Olympic Committee and the city
of Sochi. For example, waste from Olympic zone is being transferred
beyond the area of Sochi, to the Belorechensky landfill. These
actions are not in compliance with zero waste guarantees stated
in the Bid Book. Moreover, decision to transport Olympic waste
did not take transportation costs into account.
CONCLUSION: Violations of the IOCs requirements are evident.
III.
According to fundamental principles of Olympism, [t]he goal
of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious
development of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful
society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.
However, numerous and large-scale human rights abuses are
taking place in Russia. Such abuses include violations of
civil and political rights, as well as human dignity.
1. Unprecedented large-scale violations of electoral rights
during the 2011-2012 election campaigns were seen by many
citizens as cynical abasement of their human dignity. This
was the reason for massive public protests that followed the
elections.
2. Amendments to legislation on public events made the Article
31 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation non-functional.
Article 31 guarantees freedom of assembly.
3. Attacks on opposition politicians and activists have happened
in the streets in broad daylight. Most of these crimes were
not investigated. In some cases, obviously false accusations
by government prosecutors indicate that these attacks were
organized by the Russian government.
4. Opposition politicians and civil activists have been fired
or were forced to abandon their businesses based upon made-up
or fabricated grounds.
5. Human dignity of prisoners is degraded in penitentiary
facilities. Such degradation of human dignity frequently causes
massive protests.
Olympic Movement, in particular, in Sochi, should have been
a complex of innovations aimed at positive changes in the
city, region, country and the world through sports, culture
and education. Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics should have been
seen as a rejuvenation project that would stimulate modernization
in all spheres of public life. This means that the government,
by common consent, should guarantee the political strategy
and ideological guidelines aimed at consolidation of all civic
forces in order to achieve sustainable development. However,
the facts indicate that the line taken by the government is
antagonistic toward its citizens with the aim of suppressing
any peaceful civil demonstrations and of changing their very
understanding of human dignity.
CONCLUSION: From the very moment of selection of Sochi as
the host city for 2014 Winter Olympics, the government of
the Russian Federation has deliberately pursued the policy
to degrade human dignity of its citizens. Consequently, governmental
policy in Russia contradicts on of the main goals of Olympism
to foster respect for human dignity.
IV.
GENERAL CONCLUSION
There are serious grounds to revise and cancel the IOCs decision
to host XXII Winter Olympics 2014 in the city of Sochi. However,
we strongly believe that sportsmen and sportswomen must not
suffer. Therefore, every person who wishes to count him or
herself as an honest and decent human being, regardless of
their citizenship, has the opportunity to adequately express
his or her attitude toward the existing state of affairs.
For example, a person can abstain from buying souvenirs with
Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics symbols; abstain from participating
in Olympic lotteries and in other commercial and non-commercial
Olympic events. Similarly, a person can take part in disseminating
truthful information about the situation in Russia and Sochi
among their friends, thus, participating in the global campaign
against moral and financial complicity of the Olympic Movement
in crimes against civil and political rights and against global
environment.
Russia, Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee, Russian Olympic Committee
and the city of Sochi are not in compliance with binding guarantees
stipulated in the Olympic Contract. There is only a year left
until Sochi Olympics and this situation is unlikely to change
in the remaining year.
We announce that we are launching the program Analysis of
geological and ecological situation of agglomeration of the
Greater Sochi during the Olympic construction and conducting
of Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics by means of Geographic Information
System technologies. The program will last until 2015 when
we will evaluate the final impact of the Olympics based on
many broad indicators. You may name this Olympic black list,
if you wish. The first part of this work will be presented
at the X World Conference on Sport and Environment that will
be held in Sochi from October 30 to November 2, 2013.
---------------------------------
[1] Olympic Charter, Rule 2, paragraphs 13, 14
[1] The Olympic Movement Fact Sheet, July 2012 at 1, available
at http://www.olympic.org/Documents/Reference_documents_Factsheets/Environment_and_substainable_developement.pdf
[1] Id. at 3
[1] Id.
See also:
The oroginal
publication
Protection
of Environment
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