Ales Bialiatski, from Belarus, and the organizations Memorial (Russia) and Center for Civil Liberties (Ukraine) were awarded
Belarusian human rights defender Ales Bialiatski and Russia’s Memorial and Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties won the Nobel Prize of Peace 2022. The announcement was made this Friday (7.Oct.2022) by Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
In notethe Nobel Committee declared that the laureates “made a remarkable effort to document war crimes, human rights abuses and abuse of power”. According to the Nobel “together they demonstrate the importance of civil society for peace and democracy”.
The Committee highlighted that the laureates “represent civil society in their home countries” and, for many years, “promoted the right to criticize power and protected the fundamental rights of citizens”. In addition to the distinction, they will share the prize of 10 million Swedish kronor (about R$ 4.8 million).
ALES BIALIATSKI
Ales Bialiatski was born on September 25, 1962, in Vyartsilya, Russia, but lives in Belarus. According to the Committee, he was one of the initiators of the democracy movement that emerged in Belarus in the mid-1980s.
“He dedicated his life to promoting democracy and peaceful development in his country.”, said the Committee, adding that the “government officials have repeatedly triedand” the silence.
“He was imprisoned from 2011 to 2014. After large demonstrations against the regime in 2020, he was arrested again. He is still being held without trial. Despite enormous personal difficulties, Bialiatski did not give an inch in his fight for human rights and democracy in Belarus.”, declared the Committee.
MEMORIAL
The Russian human rights organization was created in 1987 by human rights activists in the former Soviet Union. Among the founders are Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989) and human rights defender Svetlana Gannushkina.
According to the Nobel, they “wanted to ensure that victims of communist regime oppression would never be forgotten”. After the collapse of the USSR, Memorial grew and “became Russia’s largest human rights organization” and works with the notion that “Addressing past crimes is essential to preventing new ones.”.
The organization compiled and systematized information about political oppression and human rights violations in Russia and “has been at the forefront of efforts to combat militarism and promote human rights and rule of law rule”.
In December 2021, Russian authorities decided that Memorial should be closed. Speaking about the forced dissolution, the organization’s president, Yan Rachinsky, stated that “no one plans to give up”.
CENTER FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES
The Center for Civil Liberties was founded in Kiev in 2007 to promote human rights and democracy in Ukraine. The organization has actively advocated for the country to join the ICC (International Criminal Court).
After the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022, the center, according to the Nobel, “committed to identifying and documenting Russian war crimes against the civilian population” from the country.
“In collaboration with international partners, the center plays a pioneering role in holding the culprits accountable for their crimes.”, declared the Committee.
NOBEL 2022
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences released the 2022 Nobel laureates throughout the week. With the delivery of the Nobel Peace Prize on this ugly 6th (Oct 7th), the only thing missing is the announcement of the winner of the Economics prize, which will be made on Monday (Oct 10th, 2022).
Here are the winners:
- Nobel Prize in Medicine 2022 – Svante Pääbo, for discoveries about the genome of extinct human ancestors;
- Nobel Prize in Physics 2022 – Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger, for studies on quantum mechanics, which investigates the behavior of particles such as atoms, electrons and photons;
- Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022 – Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless, for creating a creative tool for building molecules with the “development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry“;
- Nobel Prize in Literature 2022 – Annie Ernaux, “for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, the estrangements and the collective constraints of personal memory”.
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