Peace Nobel for human rights activists rebuke to Vladimir Putin

Kyiv, October 7

Human rights activists from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, a strong rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine has outraged the international community, and to the Belarusian President, his authoritarian ally.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2022 prize to imprisoned Belarus activist Ales Bialiatski, Russian group Memorial and Ukraine’s Centre for Civil Liberties. Berit Reiss-Andersen of the Norwegian Nobel Committee said the panel wanted to honour “three outstanding champions” of human rights, democracy and peaceful coexistence.

Belarus activist Ales Bialiatski

Founded NGO Viasna Human Rights Centre; detained in 2020 against the re-election of Belarus’ President, he is in jail without trial and faces up to 12 years in prison, if convicted

Ukraine Centre for Civil Liberties

Founded in 2007 to promote human rights & democracy; post Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, the group has worked to document war crimes against civilians in Ukraine

Memorial, Russia

Founded in 1987 to ensure the victims of communist repression are remembered, it has continued to compile info on human rights abuses and track the fate of political prisoners in Russia

Belarus’ Foreign Ministry denounced the Nobel Committee for honouring Bialiatski, with its spokesman calling its choices in recent years “politicised.” Asked whether the Nobel Committee was intentionally rebuking Putin, Reiss-Andersen said the prize was not against anybody but for something.

The prize comes amid the largest war in Europe since World War II. Bialiatski was one of the leaders of the democracy movement in Belarus in the mid-1980s, who founded NGO Viasna Human Rights Centre. Detained in 2020 against the re-election of Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko, he is in jail without trial and faces up to 12 years in prison, if convicted. Memorial was founded in 1987 to ensure victims of communist repression were remembered. The Centre for Civil Liberties was founded in 2007 to promote human rights and democracy in Ukraine. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, it has worked to document war crimes against Ukrainian civilians. — AP

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