We’re wrapping up this liveblog now. Many thanks for reading. Here’s a piece on today’s winners.
This from the World organisation Against Torture …
One more word on Ales Bialiatski, who just won the #NobelPeacePrize. Two weeks ago, he spent his 60th birthday in prison in #Belarus. He had also turned 50 behind bars - he was previously detained in 2011-2014. https://t.co/uOk7Q6ExOD
— Iolanda Jaquemet (@iolandajaquemet) October 7, 2022
What is Memorial?
AFP has a good catch-up here on Memorial, the Russian human rights group that was one of the two organisations to win this year’s Nobel peace prize.
It describes Memorial as “the conscience of Russia banned under Putin” and notes that it was ordered to shut down during a wave of repression against critical voices.
The group, which emerged as a hopeful symbol during Russia’s chaotic transition to democracy in the early 1990s, was dissolved late last year, in a sign of the tightening authoritarian tendencies under President Vladimir Putin.
Memorial established itself as a key pillar in civil society by battling to preserve the memory of victims of Communist repressions and campaigning against rights violations linked to Russia’s brutal wars in Chechnya and beyond.
The group maintained a massive archive of Soviet-era crimes and questioned official narratives that glossed over horrors committed under Joseph Stalin, but showed concern for contemporary rights abuses too by bringing legal cases against Russian mercenaries in Syria.
Rights activists in December last year asked Putin to intervene in legal moves to shut it down.
But the Russian leader told his human rights council that Memorial had been advocating on behalf of “terrorist and extremist organisations”, clearly signalling his backing for its closure.
Memorial had been compiling a list of political prisoners who include members of banned religious groups like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Putin’s most prominent critic Alexei Navalny, who was thrown into jail after surviving a near-fatal poisoning attack.
Memorial’s closure came amid an unprecedented crackdown in Russia that intensified after Putin sent troops into Ukraine on 24 February.
But the enormity of outlawing the country’s most prominent rights group stood out even amid the intense clampdown.
“The disappearance of Memorial in Russia will become a symbol of a deep moral fall and the definitive symbolic estrangement of the Russian man from the civilisation of the 21st century,” dozens of prominent Russian figures said in an open letter at the time.
“The wounds, which have not healed over the 30 post-Soviet years, are bleeding again.”
Memorial was founded in the final years of Communist rule under late Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
Its first chairman was the Nobel Prize-winning Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov.
The group, which was regularly cited as a potential Nobel peace prize winner, had been in the crosshairs of the Russian authorities for years.
The Memorial Human Rights Centre was put on the government’s register of “foreign agents” in 2015. Memorial International was added a year later.
The “foreign agents” label, which has dark Soviet-era connotations, requires individuals or groups to disclose sources of funding and mark all publications - including social media posts - with a tag.
Memorial has labelled claims it broke the law or backed terror and extremist groups as “absurd”.
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The Center for Civil Liberties was founded in 2007 to promote human rights and democracy in Ukraine during a period of turmoil in the country.
“The center has taken a stand to strengthen Ukrainian civil society and pressure the authorities to make Ukraine a full fledged democracy, to develop Ukraine into a state governed by rule of law,” said the Nobel committee chair, Berit Reiss-Andersen.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, the group has worked to document Russian war crimes against Ukrainian civilians.
“The center is playing a pioneering role with a view to holding the guilty parties accountable for their crimes,” added Reiss-Andersen.
A representative for the Center for Civil Liberties, Volodymyr Yavorskyi, said the award was important for the organisation, because “for many years we worked in a country that was invisible”.
“This is a surprise for us,” he told The Associated Press. “But human rights activity is the main weapon against the war.”
Memorial was founded in the Soviet Union in 1987 to ensure the victims of communist repression would be remembered.
It has continued to compile information on human rights abuses in Russia and tracked the fate of political prisoners in the country.
“The organisation has also been standing at the forefront of efforts to combat militarism and promote human rights and government based on the rule of law,” said Reiss-Andersen.
(Via AP)
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AFP have done a useful profile of Ales Bialiatski, the veteran rights defender in authoritarian Belarus who was the only individual to win this year’s Nobel peace prize.
Ales Bialiatski, the head of Belarus rights group Viasna who was jailed last year, won the prize in the wake of historic demonstrations and a severe crackdown in his ex-Soviet country.
The 60 year old was arrested in July last year on charges of tax evasion, a move that critics of Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko saw as a thinly veiled tactic to silence his work.
Bialiatski‘s organisation, which translates as “Spring” and was founded in 1996, is Belarus’s most prominent rights group, whose work has charted the increasingly authoritarian tendencies of Lukashenko and his security forces.
Established during mass pro-democracy protests several years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it sought to help detained protesters and their families.
In the years since, Viasna and Bialiatski have gained prominence as Lukashenko’s regime has leaned on more brutal ways of retaining its tight grip on power.
When massive rallies broke out across the country against Lukashenko’s claim to a sixth presidential term in August 2020, Viasna meticulously tracked numbers of people detained at protests and after police raids across Belarus in the months afterwards.
In the wake of the vote, Bialiatski described “real terror” taking hold of regional towns and in the capital Minsk as authorities worked to quash dissent.
“The goal is very simple - to retain power at any cost and instill fear in society so that there are no protests against the falsification of these elections,” he said.
Bialiatski was also part of a council of opposition figures - that included previous Belarusian Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich - tasked with organising new free and fair elections.
But in July 2021, Lukashenko’s crackdown came to his doorstep with coordinated raids on a wide range of civil society groups, including Viasna’s offices and Bialiatski‘s home, in a sweep that the group called a “new wave” of repression.
Viasna said last year that apart from Bialiatski, six of its members who were arrested following the elections were in jail.
“The brutal crackdown on Viasna is part of the wider ‘purge’ of civil society declared by President Alexander Lukashenko,” Human Rights Watch said last year.
It was not the first time Bialiatski had run into trouble with security forces in Belarus, which is often described as “Europe’s last dictatorship”.
In August 2011, he was handed a four-and-a-half year prison sentence for tax evasion in a move widely seen as politically motivated in the wake of an earlier presidential election claimed by Lukashenko.
At the time, a court ruled that Viasna had to vacate offices it used for the previous 12 years.
Bialiatski was released from that prison sentence in 2014, 18 months early.
“During his 25 years of activism, Bialiatski has faced serial repression,” Human Rights Watch said last year after his pretrial detention was extended.
Bialiatski has also authored several books.
His activism has been recognised with several awards, mostly from Western institutions, including the Andrei Sakharov Freedom Award. He was previously nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times.
He was born in 1962 in a region of the Soviet Union near Finland and served in the military before studying philology.
Here’s a pithy summary of the significance of this year’s winners from former Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth …
On Putin's 70th birthday, the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to a Russian human rights group that he shut down, a Ukrainian human rights group that is documenting his war crimes, and a Belarusian human rights activist whom his ally Lukashenko has imprisoned. https://t.co/5Yozif0Qis
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) October 7, 2022
Belarusian human rights activist Ales Bialiatski received the Nobel Peace Prize.
— Viasna (@viasna96) October 7, 2022
He's been behind bars for over a year. pic.twitter.com/00B8icS3Qg
This from Tanya Lokshina, Europe and Central Asia associate director at Human Rights Watch:
Awarding Noble Prize to jailed Belarusian rights defender Ales Bialiatski, Center for Civil Liberties whose team is at the forefront of documenting war crimes in Ukraine, and Russian rights giant Memorial is a great gesture of solidarity with rights groups besieged by autocrats
— Tanya Lokshina (@TanyaLokshina) October 7, 2022
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Asked whether the bestowing of the prize would “increase the risk for suppression and repression” of groups such as Memorial – and harm activists – Berit Reiss-Andersen said:
This is a dilemma the Nobel committee often faces and it is something we always consider and take into consideration very seriously. But we also have the point of view that the individuals behind these organisations, they have chosen to take a risk and pay a high price and show courage to fight for what they believe in. We are of course particularly concerned about Mr Bialiatski, who is detained under very hard conditions in a prison … and we do pray that this prize will not affect him negatively. But we hope it might boost his morale.
Prize 'not addressing President Putin', says Nobel head
Nobel committee head says this year’s prize should not be seen as a response to Putin
This is what Berit Reiss-Andersen, the head of the Nobel committee, had to say when asked if this year’s choice of winners was “a timely birthday president” to Vladimir Putin on the Russian president’s 70th birthday:
This prize is not addressing President Putin, not for his birthday, or in any other sense – except that his government, as the government in Belarus, is representing an authoritarian government that is suppressing human rights activists. And the attention that Mr Putin has drawn on himself that is relevant in this context is the way civil society and human rights advocates are being suppressed. And that is what we would like to address with this prize. And we always give a prize for something and to somebody and not against anyone.
Updated
The press conference has just wrapped up.
Reiss-Andersen plays down suggestions that the choice of this year’s three winners is a pointed message to Vladimir Putin on the Russian president’s 70th birthday. The prize, she adds, is always given to someone for something and not “against someone”.
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Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee, notes that all three of this year’s winners are “neighbours and civil society [groups] with a joint understanding of the values that they want to promote”.
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Not surprisingly, the third winner of this year’s Nobel peace prize is a Ukrainian group:
The Center for Civil Liberties – awarded the 2022 #NobelPeacePrize – was founded for the purpose of advancing human rights and democracy in Ukraine. It 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, the center has engaged in efforts to identify and document Russian war crimes against the Ukrainian population. The center is playing a pioneering role in holding guilty parties accountable for their crimes.
And more information from the committee on Memorial, the Russian human rights organisation that is one of this year’s three winners:
Memorial, @MemorialMoscow, 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.
Memorial is based on the notion that confronting past crimes is essential in preventing new ones. The organisation has also been standing at the forefront of efforts to combat militarism and promote human rights and government based on rule of law.
During the Chechen wars, Memorial, @EnMemorial, gathered and verified information on abuses and war crimes perpetrated on the population by Russian and pro-Russian forces. In 2009, the head of Memorial’s branch in Chechnya, Natalia Estemirova, was killed because of this work.
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More here from the prize committee on the still-detained Belarusian human rights activist Ales Bialiatski, who has won this year’s peace prize:
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.
He founded the organisation Viasna (Spring), @viasna96, in 1996. Viasna evolved into a broad-based human rights organisation that documented and protested against the authorities’ use of torture against political prisoners.
Government authorities have repeatedly sought to silence Ales Bialiatski. Since 2020, he is still detained without trial. Despite tremendous personal hardship, Mr Bialiatski has not yielded an inch in his fight for human rights and democracy in Belarus.
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According to the awards committee:
This year’s laureates represent civil society in their home countries. They have for many years promoted the right to criticise power and protect the fundamental rights of citizens.
They have made an outstanding effort to document war crimes, human rights abuses and the abuse of power. Together they demonstrate the significance of civil society for peace and democracy.
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Winners are Ales Bialitski, Memorial and Center for Civil Liberties
This year’s winners are:
human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski from Belarus
the Russian human rights organisation Memorial
the Ukrainian human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties
BREAKING NEWS:
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 7, 2022
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2022 #NobelPeacePrize to human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, the Russian human rights organisation Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties. #NobelPrize pic.twitter.com/9YBdkJpDLU
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The winners are: human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, the Russian human rights organisation Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties.
The 2022 Nobel peace prize has been awarded to one individual and two organisations …
Here we go …
In just a few minutes we will know the newest #NobelPeacePrize laureate. Here's a sneak peek at Norwegian Nobel Committee Chair Berit Reiss-Andersen preparing before the announcement.
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 7, 2022
Stay tuned to our channels for the live announcement at 11:00 CEST. pic.twitter.com/Zzz8cBaXYf
This year’s winner, or winners, will be announced in just over 20 minutes. While we wait, here’s some Nobel peace prize trivia, courtesy of the awards site.
102 Nobel Peace Prizes have been awarded 1901–2021.
25 organisations have been awarded.
2 peace prizes have been divided between three persons.
18 women have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize so far.
1 peace prize laureate, Le Duc Tho, has declined the Nobel Peace Prize.
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A week of Nobel prize announcements kicked off on Monday with Swedish scientist Svante Pääbo receiving the award in medicine for unlocking secrets of Neanderthal DNA that provided key insights into our immune system.
Three scientists jointly won the prize in physics on Tuesday. Frenchman Alain Aspect, American John F Clauser and Austrian Anton Zeilinger had shown that tiny particles can retain a connection with each other even when separated – a phenomenon known as quantum entanglement, which can be used for specialised computing and to encrypt information.
The Nobel prize in chemistry was awarded on Wednesday to Americans Carolyn R Bertozzi and K Barry Sharpless, and to Danish scientist Morten Meldal for developing a way of “snapping molecules together” that can be used to explore cells, map DNA and design drugs that can target diseases such as cancer more precisely.
The French author Annie Ernaux won this year’s Nobel prize in literature on Thursday. The panel commended her for blending fiction and autobiography in books that fearlessly mine her experiences as a working-class woman to explore life in France since the 1940s.
The 2022 Nobel prize in the economics will be announced on Monday.
The prizes carry a cash award of 10m Swedish kronor (nearly $900,000) and will be handed out on 10 December The money comes from a bequest left by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, in 1895. (Via AP)
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In case you were wondering how the Nobel peace prize process works, here’s a useful explainer from the award’s website:
It’s usually an eight-month screening and decision-making process which involves not only the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee and its Secretary but a group of Norwegian and international advisers as well. The advisers, who are selected on the basis of their professional experience and academic expertise, prepare individual reports on the candidates that the committee has put on its short list. The initial reports are usually ready by the end of April.
The committee members then study the reports together with other relevant information and start their deliberations. More often than not they will ask for further reports on various candidates. As they continue their deliberations throughout the summer and receive additional reports from the advisers, they narrow the field of candidates down to a very small group.
Eventually, by the beginning of October at the latest, the committee makes its decision through a simple majority vote. The decision is final and without appeal. The name(s) of that year’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate(s) is then announced.
The cycle is completed on 10 December, when the annual Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony takes place in the Oslo City Hall.
At the ceremony, the laureate(s) delivers the Nobel Prize lecture and receives the Nobel Prize medal and diploma as well as a document confirming the prize amount.
As this piece from AP makes very clear, a Nobel peace prize may have brought publicity, but it hasn’t lessened the chilling and almost impossible circumstance both Muratov and Ressa have been forced to endure over the past 12 months.
Muratov saw the situation for independent media in Russia turn from bad to worse following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February. The paper removed much of the war reporting from its website a week later in response to a new Russian law, which threatened jail terms of up to 15 years for publishing information disparaging the Russian military or deemed to be “fake.”
Many Russian journalists left the country. But Novaya Gazeta held out, printing three issues a week and reaching what Muratov said were 27 million readers in March.
Finally, on 28 March 28 – after two warnings from Russia’s media regulator – the paper announced it was suspending publication for the duration of the war. A team of its journalists, however, started a new project from abroad, calling it Novaya Gazeta Europe.
In the Philippines, Ressa and Rappler’s legal problems haven’t eased since the former president Rodrigo Duterte left office on 30 June.
Ressa’s online news outfit was among the most critical of Duterte’s brutal crackdown on illegal drugs, which left thousands of mostly petty drug suspects dead and sparked an International Criminal Court investigation into possible crimes against humanity.
Throughout much of Duterte’s rule, Ressa and Rappler, which she co-founded in 2012, fought a slew of lawsuits that threatened to shut down the increasingly popular news website and lock her up in jail.
Just two days before Duterte stepped down, the government’s corporate regulator upheld a decision revoking Rappler’s operating license on the ground that the news site had allowed a foreign investor to wield control in violation of a constitutional prohibition on foreign control of local media – a finding that Rappler had disputed.
Rappler moved to fight the closure order and told its staff: “It is business as usual for us. We will adapt, adjust, survive and thrive.”
It was supported by prominent democracy voices. “Rappler and Maria Ressa tell the truth,” Hillary Clinton tweeted. “Shutting the site down would be a grave disservice to the country and its people.”
About a week later in July, in the first days in power of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, Manila’s Court of Appeals upheld an online libel conviction of Ressa and a former Rappler journalist in a separate lawsuit and imposed a longer prison sentence of up to six years, eight months and 20 days for both. Their lawyers appealed to keep them out of prison and the news website running.
The ruling prompted the Norwegian Nobel Committee to react, with committee chair Berit Reiss-Andersen saying it “underlines the importance of a free, independent and fact-based journalism, which serves to protect against abuse of power, lies and war propaganda”.
Last year’s winners were two campaigning journalists from the Philippines and Russia.
Maria Ressa, the chief executive and cofounder of Rappler, and Dmitry Muratov, the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, were named as 2021’s laureates by Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee.
“Free, independent and fact-based journalism serves to protect against abuse of power, lies and war propaganda,” Reiss-Andersen said, praising the two journalists’ “courageous fight for freedom of expression, a precondition for democracy and lasting peace”.
Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s Nobel peace prize 2022 liveblog. I’m Sam Jones. The announcement of this year’s winner will be made in Oslo at 10am BST (11am CEST).
As nominees are never named by the Nobel committee, the likely winner is anyone’s guess. According to the Nobel statutes, the full list of eligible nominees for the year’s prizes is not disclosed for another 50 years.
In 2022, a year overshadowed by the climate emergency, economic turmoil – and, most notably, Russia invasion of Ukraine – who will win the ultimate peace plaudit? Stay with us to find out …
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