Russia: Winter Games Olympic Torch Throws Light on Human
Rights Violations
After pushing through the numerous
grammatical blunders made by the writers of Amnesty International this article
began to help me to understand something.
The passage was mostly about human rights but it also tied together the
role that international affairs can have on these rights. When someone thinks about the Olympic Games
the first things that they picture are usually the events. This article takes a worldwide event and puts
a spin on it that the public would usually not think of or even consider. While it is true that the Olympic Games bring
attention to a nation they do not inherently cause people to consider human
rights violations within the country holding the games. Russia has recently committed a series of
human rights violations ranging from homophobic legislation to freedom of
speech limitations. Amnesty
International plans to have a series of protests against these acts. This is a side of the Olympics that I have
personally never seen as I am sure most people have never even imagined. The fact that an event like this is being
used as a means to shed light or as the article states ‘”throw a torch” on
human rights violations to me is very surprising.
I feel that this global action
against a very large and influential nation is uplifting as far as human rights
are concerned. The way in which these
atrocities are being fought has now reached a grand international scale. Although it is peaceful protesting and not
action against these crimes it is a glimmer of hope. International events like the Olympic Games
can become a means for groups like Amnesty International to get support in
protest of human rights violations. The
fact that these protests are being planned months in advance also shows that
most of the world has already recognized Russia and their actions
recently. It was not hidden from the
rest of the world which has previously led to some of the worst atrocities know
to date (North Korea or Holocaust).
Bringing these violations to light as early as possible gives people the
ability to stand up and fight them before they escalate to large acts of
wrongdoing. I believed that this article
was a call for people to recognize these atrocities because recognition is the
most important step for getting the entire world to fight these human rights
violations.
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