Nobel Peace Prize laureate 2022 Ales Belyatsky, the jailed leader of human rights organisation Vesna, waving to his relatives as he sits in court in Belarus in 2011
(Picture: AP)A jailed Belarusian human rights activist and human rights organisations from Russia and Ukraine have been announced as winners of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.
The Norwegian Nobel committee revealed at 10am on Friday, UK time, that Belarusian activist Ales Byalyatski, Russian human rights organisation Memorial and Ukrainian human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties as this year’s laureates.
The committee said the winners “represent civil society in their home countries” and 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 right abuses and the abuse of power,” it added. “Together they demonstrate the significance of civil society for peace and democracy.”
Ales Bialiatski currently resides in jail, following demonstrations against the Belarusian regime in 2020 which saw him imprisoned without trial.
He is heralded as was one of the initiators of the democracy movement that emerged in Belarus in the mid-1980s.
In 1996, he founded the organisation Viasna in response to controversial constitutional amendments that gave the president dictatorial powers and triggered widespread demonstrations.
The organisation provided support for the jailed demonstrators and their families, and evolved into a wide-ranging human rights organisation that “documented and protested against the authorities’ use of torture against political prisoners”.
The Nobel Committee said on Friday: “Government authorities have repeatedly sought to silence Ales Bialiatski. Despite tremendous personal hardship, Mr Bialiatski has not yielded an inch in his fight for human rights and democracy in Belarus.”
Sharing the 2022 peace prize is human rights organisation Memorial, which 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 not be forgotten.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov and human rights advocate Svetlana Gannushkina were among the founders.
“After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Memorial grew to become the largest human rights organisation in Russia,” said the Nobel Peace Prize announcement. “Memorial became the most authoritative source of information on political prisoners in Russian detention facilities. 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.
“When civil society must give way to autocracy and dictatorship, peace is often the next victim. During the Chechen wars, Memorial gathered and verified information on abuses and war crimes perpetrated on the civilian 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.
“Civil society actors in Russia have been subjected to threats, imprisonment, disappearance and murder for many years. As part of the government’s harassment of Memorial, the organisation was stamped early on as a “foreign agent”. In December 2021, the authorities decided that Memorial was to be forcibly liquidated and the documentation centre was to be closed permanently. The closures became effective in the following months, but the people behind Memorial refuse to be shut down.”
Also receiving the 2022 prize is The Centre for Civil Liberties, founded in Kyiv in 2007 for the purpose of advancing human rights and democracy in Ukraine.
The centre has taken a stand to strengthen Ukrainian civil society and pressure the authorities to make Ukraine a full-fledged democracy, advocating for Ukraine become affiliated with the International Criminal Court, the Nobel Committee said.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the organisation has engaged in efforts to identify and document Russian war crimes against the Ukrainian civilian population.
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
The Nobel committee said: “By awarding the Nobel Peace Prize for 2022 to Ales Bialiatski, Memorial and the Center for Civil Liberties, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to honour three outstanding champions of human rights, democracy and peaceful co-existence in the neighbour countries Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.
“Through their consistent efforts in favour of humanist values, anti-militarism and principles of law, this year’s laureates have revitalised and honoured Alfred Nobel’s vision of peace and fraternity between nations – a vision most needed in the world today.”
Established in 1895, the Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature.
Previous recipients include Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, and Malala Yousafzai.
