They “demonstrate the importance of civil society for peace and democracy”. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday 7 October to Belarusian lawyer and human rights defender Ales Bialiatski, the Russian human rights organization Memorial and the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine, to have “for many years promoted the right to criticize power and protected the fundamental rights of citizens”. A highly symbolic prize, in the midst of the war in Ukraine.
“The Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to honor three outstanding champions of human rights, democracy and peaceful coexistence in the three neighboring countries Belarus, Russia and Ukraine”, said its president Berit Reiss-Andersen. These winners “have made a remarkable effort to document war crimes, human rights violations and abuse of power”, she continued (link in English).
The Nobel committee has called on Belarus to release co-winner Ales Bialiatski, who was arrested again in 2020 after widespread protest against the regime. A figure in the pro-democracy movement from the 1980s in Belarus, the lawyer has “dedicated his life to the promotion of democracy and peaceful development in his country”, points out the Nobel committee.
Last year, theFilipino journalists Maria Ressa and Russian Dmitry Muratov were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for “their courageous fight for freedom of expression”. Previous winners were the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) in 2020, “for his efforts to fight hunger in the world”, and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in 2019, awarded “for his efforts in favor of peace” and in particular his “determined initiative to settle the border conflict with Eritrea”.