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Three organizations from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, which defend the rights of citizens in the midst of the war launched by Moscow against Kiev, won the Nobel Peace Prize this Saturday, October 10. Upon receiving the award, the activists defended the country under attack and its legitimate right to defense.
Laureates of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize are Belarusian human rights activist Ales Byalyatski, Russian rights group Memorial and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties (CCL).
Byalyatski’s wife, Natalia Pinchuk, received his award on his behalf.
They were all honored for “promoting the right to criticize power and protecting the fundamental rights of citizens,” as well as for their efforts to document war crimes, human rights abuses, and power, said Nobel Committee chair Berit Reiss- Andersen.
During the ceremony in Oslo, the winners shared their visions of a fairer world and denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
“Peace cannot be achieved by an attacked country that lays down its arms (…) This would not be peace, but occupation,” said Oleksandra Matviichuk, from the Center for Civil Liberties of Ukraine.
Human rights advocates in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus were being honored on Saturday at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo. The laureates have become symbols of resistance and accountability during the largest ground war in Europe since World War II. https://t.co/DWFtSUjWa0
—The New York Times (@nytimes) December 10, 2022
Likewise, in her speech the representative of one of the awarded organizations dismissed the calls for a political compromise that would allow Russia to retain some of the Ukrainian territories that it has annexed after holding disputed referendums that the West describes as “illegal”.
“Fighting for peace does not mean giving in to the pressure of the aggressor, it means protecting people from his cruelty,” Matviichuk stressed.
Laureates call for Putin and Lukashenko to be brought to justice
Matviichuk repeated his earlier call for Putin, and Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, to face an international tribunal.
Belarus hosted Russian troops that were moving towards their country, which borders northern Ukraine, weeks before Putin publicly ordered war on February 24.
In addition, last Wednesday, December 8, Minsk and the Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed that military units from Moscow began tactical exercises on Belarusian soil.
#Russia‘s ministry of defense showed tactical drills in #Belarus under the flag of the so-called DNR. Servicemen of the Western Military District participate in the drills. The Russians wrote in their Telegram post: “We are one”. That’s how they treat a sovereign country pic.twitter.com/KjsD1iWCmt
— Hanna Liubakova (@HannaLiubakova) December 8, 2022
Although Lukashenko has assured that his nation would not enter the conflict, these actions work against him and kyiv and its Western allies accuse him of supporting the Kremlin.
The work of the organizations awarded this Saturday has been gestating since before the current war.
Founded in 2007, the CCL has documented war crimes allegedly committed by Russian troops on Ukrainian soil, including shelling of residential buildings, churches, schools, and hospitals, shelling of evacuation corridors, forced displacement of people, and torture.
And in the more than nine months into the current conflict, the Civil Liberties Center has documented more than 27,000 cases of alleged war crimes, considered by the activist group to be “just the tip of the iceberg.”
With Reuters and AFP
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