Illustration representing Nobel Peace Prize winners Ales Byalyatski,
Russian organisation Memorial and Ukrainian group Center for Civil Liberties.
—@nobelprize
Reuters Published October 7, 2022
Jailed Belarusian activist Ales Byalyatski, Russian organisation Memorial and Ukrainian group Center for Civil Liberties won the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, highlighting the significance of civil society for peace and democracy.
The prize will be seen by many as a condemnation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is celebrating his 70th birthday on Friday, and Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, making it one of the most politically contentious in decades.
The award, the first since Russia’s Feb 24 invasion of Ukraine, has echoes of the Cold War era, when prominent Soviet dissidents such as Andrei Sakharov and Alexander Solzhenitsyn won Nobels for peace or literature.
“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,” said Committee Chair Berit Reiss-Andersen.
She called on Belarus to release Byalyatski from prison and said the prize was not against Putin.
“We always give the prize for something and to something and not against someone,” she told reporters.
Belarusian security police in July last year raided offices and homes of lawyers and human rights activists, detaining Byalyatski and others in a new crackdown on opponents of Lukashenko.
Authorities had moved to shut down non-state media outlets and human right groups after mass protests the previous August against a presidential election the opposition said was rigged.
“The (Nobel) Committee is sending a message that political freedoms, human rights and active civil society are part of peace,” Dan Smith, head of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, told Reuters.
The prize will boost morale for Byalyatski and strengthen the hand of the Center for Civil Liberties, an independent Ukrainian human rights organisation, which is also focused on fighting corruption, he said.
“Although Memorial has been closed in Russia, it lives on as an idea that it’s right to criticize power and that facts and history matter,” Smith added.
Reactions
Memorial said on Friday that winning the award was recognition of its human rights work and of colleagues who continue to suffer “unspeakable attacks and reprisals” in Russia.
Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties said on Friday it was proud to win.
“Morning with good news. We are proud,” it wrote on Twitter.
The award was also recognition for the whole Belarusian people in standing up to Lukashenko, opposition spokesman Franak Viacorka said.
He told Reuters that Byalyatski was jailed in “inhumane” conditions and he hoped the prize would lead to his release.
“That’s a huge sign of recognition for the Belarusian people, because the Belarusian people deserves it for their bravery in countering the tyranny of Lukashenko …. they deserve all the prizes in the world,” said Viacorka, chief of staff to exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who is a close friend of Byalyatski.
The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 10 million Swedish crowns, or about $900,000, will be presented in Oslo on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will.
“The Peace Prize 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,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in its citation.
“They have made an outstanding effort to document war crimes, human right abuses and the abuse of power. Together they demonstrate the significance of civil society for peace and democracy.”
Nobel Peace Prize Winners Shine Spotlight On ‘The Power Of Civil Society To Promote Peace’
Press Release: UN News
The human rights advocates from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus who have been awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, represent “the oxygen of democracy” said the UN chief on Friday, in a message of congratulations to the three winners.
The laureates are Ales Bialiatski, a jailed activist in Belarus, the civil society organisations Memorial, which was forced to close its doors by the Russian authorities last year, and the Ukraine-based Centre for Civil Liberties.
“As the Nobel Committee cited, this year’s recognition shines a spotlight on the power of civil society to advance peace”, said Secretary-General António Guterres.
'Catalysts for peace'
“Civil society groups are the oxygen of democracy, and catalysts for peace, social progress and economic growth. They help keep governments accountable and carry the voices of the vulnerable into the halls of power.”
Mr. Bialatski was imprisoned in July 2021, as a result of the mass protest movement against the disputed re-election of Belarussian leader Alexander Lukashenko. Memorial is reportedly one of the oldest human rights organisations in Russia, led by previous peace prize laureate, Andrei Sakharov. It unearthed the full scale of suffering experienced in the notorious Stalinist-era prison camps, known as the Gulag.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, Ukraine’s Centre for Civil Liberties has begun documenting human rights abuses committed by Russian forces and their allies, having previously worked on exposing rights abuses in Russian-occupied Crimea, according to news reports.
The chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Berit Reiss-Andresen, said during the awards announcement that the three civil society winners “have for many years promoted the right to criticize power and protect the fundamental rights of citizens.”
Civic space shrinking
In his statement, Mr. Guterres noted that civic space was “narrowing across the world.” More and more, rights defenders, women’s rights advocates, environmental activists, journalists and others in the rights field, “face arbitrary arrest, harsh prison sentences, smear campaigns, crippling fines and violent attacks.”
“As we congratulate this year’s winners, let us pledge to defend the brave defenders of universal values of peace, hope and dignity for all”, the Secretary-General concluded.
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Belarus opposition urges release of Nobel winner Ales Bialiatski
Opponents of Minsk strongman Alexander Lukashenko say they hope the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to activist Ales Bialiatski might help precipitate his release from prison.
Biliatski remains in prison without trial after protests two years ago
A spokesman for the Belarusian opposition on Friday said he hoped the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Belarusian human rights activist Ales Bialiatski could bring about his release.
Bialiatski, who remains in jail without trial after protests in 2020 against the reelection of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, was the only individual honored with a Nobel Peace Prize also awarded to the Russian organization Memorial and Ukraine's Center for Civil Liberties.
What did the opposition say?
Opposition spokesman Franak Viacorka said the award was a recognition for all Belarusians who had stood up to Lukashenko and his authoritarian regime.
"They deserve all the prizes in the world," said Viacorka, chief of staff to exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
Viacorka went on to add that the prize should attract attention to the plight of all political prisoners, including Bialiatski.
"He's kept in inhuman conditions and we hope it will help to release him and thousands of others from Lukashenko's and the KGB's cells," Viacorka said.
Tsikhanouskaya herself, a friend of Bialiatski, told the AP news agency that she thought the prize could have an indirect influence on Bialiatski's fate.
"Physically, you know, this prize will not influence their situation but I am sure it [will] influence the moods and intentions of other countries to help those people who are behind bars,'' she said.
The Nobel Prize committee itself also called for Bialiatski's release.
"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", the Nobel committee said.
The head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Berit Reiss-Andersen said she hoped Bialiatski would be able to receive the award himself at a ceremony in December in Norway.
"We do hope... that he can come to Oslo and receive the honor bestowed upon him," she said.
Who is Ales Bialiatski?
Bialiatski was one among those who led the democracy movement in Belarus in the mid-1980s, but he has kept up his campaign for human rights and civil liberties in the country.
The now 60-year-old was imprisoned from 2011 to 2014 and arrested again after massive more recent demonstrations against Lukashenko's regime.
Bialiatski was the founder of the non-governmental organization Human Rights Center Viasna and was the 2020 recipient of a Right Livelihood Award, sometimes referred to as the "Alternative Nobel."
Other reactions to the winners
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen hailed the "courage" of Bialiatski and the two organizations that won the prize.
"The Nobel Prize committee has recognized the outstanding courage of the women and men standing against autocracy. They show the true power of civil society in the fight for democracy," von der Leyen tweeted.
Memorial itself said on Friday said the award recognized the work of colleagues who continue to suffer "unspeakable attacks and reprisals" in Russia.
"It encourages us in our resolve to support our Russian colleagues to continue their work at a new location, despite the forced dissolution of MEMORIAL International in Moscow," Memorial board member Anke Giesen told Reuters news agency.
French President Emmanuel Macron hailed the laureates, saying that their prize "pays homage to unwavering defenders of human rights in Europe."
Poland's Foreign Ministry also said it welcomed the recognition given to the winners.
"We welcome the recognition of their efforts in the fight for freedom and respect for human rights," the ministry said on Twitter on Friday.
However, Ukrainian presidential advisor Mikhaylo Podolyak criticized the Nobel committee in a tweet, saying it has an "interesting understanding of word 'peace' if representatives of two countries that attacked a third one receive Nobel Prize together."
"Neither Russian nor Belarusian organizations were able to organize resistance to the war," he added.
But the 2015 Nobel Literature Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich told DW, "Today’s decision of the Nobel Committee shows the view of people in the West that Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians have their own heroes."
"I have already received calls from Ukraine. I understand the despair of Ukrainians who are shelled and whose friends die every day. They say they are not happy with this decision as an effort to reconcile all three nations," she said. "Probably they have their reasons to think so. But I can’t imagine at this point how individuals can do something if the whole society is not active."
ab, rc/sms (dpa, AFP, AP Reuters)
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