Nobel Peace Prize 2022 awarded to activists from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus

Courage (2021):

An inspiring and encouraging documentary about the peaceful uprising of a nation against injustice and the brutal oppression of their democracy movements.

Oslo- Amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday to Ales Bialiatski, a jailed Belarusian activist; Russian human rights organisation Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties.

The war appeared to be front and center of the decisions made by the Nobel Committee.

“With this year’s #NobelPeacePrize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to honor three outstanding champions of human rights, democracy and peaceful co-existence in the neighbor countries Belarus, Russia and Ukraine,” The Noble Committee said on Twitter.

Ales Bialiatski was one of the initiators of the democracy movement that emerged in Belarus in the mid-1980s. He has “devoted his life to promoting democracy and peaceful development in his home country," according to the committee .Among other things, he founded the organization Viasna (Spring) in 1996 in response to the controversial constitutional amendments that gave the president dictatorial powers and that triggered widespread demonstrations. Government authorities have long sought to silence him. He has been detained without trial since 2020.

The human rights organization Memorial was established in 1987 by human rights activists in the former Soviet Union who wanted to ensure that the victims of the communist regime’s oppression would never be forgotten. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov and human rights advocate Svetlana Gannushkina were among the founders. Memorial is based on the notion that confronting past crimes is essential in preventing new ones.

The Center for Civil Liberties was founded in Kyiv in 2007 for the purpose of advancing human rights and democracy in Ukraine. The center has taken a stand to strengthen Ukrainian civil society and pressure the authorities to make Ukraine a full-fledged democracy.

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Center for Civil Liberties has engaged in efforts to identify and document Russian war crimes against the Ukrainian civilian population. In collaboration with international partners, the center is playing a pioneering role with a view to holding the guilty parties accountable for their crimes.