Imprisoned Belarusian human rights activist Ales Byalyatski, Memorial, a Russian human rights organization, and Center for Civil Liberties, a Ukrainian human rights organization, were awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee’s chair, Berit Reiss-Andersen, announced on Friday in Oslo.
Nobel Peace Prize 2022: Who is Ales Byalyatski?
Ales Bialiatski, a human rights activist from Belarus, founded Viasna (Spring), a group that has documented and denounced the use of torture by the government against political detainees.
He has “devoted his life to fostering democracy and peaceful growth in his own country,” according to the committee, and was one of the founders of the democratic movement that began in Belarus in the middle of the 1980s. Since 2020, he has been held without being put on trial.
Bialiatski has not given up in his battle for human rights and democracy in Belarus, the group claimed, despite this “tremendous personal misery.”
Nobel Peace Prize 2022: Memorial
Memorial was established in Russia in 1989, amid the collapse of the Soviet Union to research and analyze the crimes and other atrocities committed under Joseph Stalin’s rule. Prior to its dissolution in Russia, it was composed of two distinct legal entities: Memorial International, which was responsible for documenting the atrocities committed against humanity in the Soviet Union, particularly during the Stalinist era, and the Memorial Human Rights Centre, which protected human rights, particularly in conflict areas in and around contemporary Russia.
As of December 2021, Memorial, which is more of a movement than a structured organization, had over 50 organizations in Russia and 11 in other nations, including Ukraine, Germany, Italy, Belgium, and France. Although the emphasis of connected groups varies from region to region, they have a common interest in promoting human rights, recording history, educating children, and commemorating political repression victims.
Centre for Civil Liberties
In order to further and put into practice the principles of human rights in Ukraine and on the soil of the newly independent states, the Center for Civil Liberties (CCL) was established in Kyiv in 2007.
The organization’s main duty is to promote the implementation of human rights reforms and Establish public oversight of judges, local self-government entities, and law enforcement agencies.
Last year’s winners of the Nobel Peace Prize
Previous year’s winners of the Peace prize have experienced a tough time since receiving the prize. Despite government efforts to silence them, journalists Dmitry Muratov of Russia and Maria Ressa of the Philippines have been fighting for the survival of their news organizations. (https://lovelandhabitat.org/) For “their efforts to defend freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and sustainable peace,” they received recognition last year.
Monday marked the beginning of Nobel Prize announcement week, with Swedish scientist Svante Paabo receiving the prize in medicine for revealing Neanderthal DNA’s hidden information that was crucial to understanding our immune system.
