Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian Rights Defenders Win Nobel Peace Prize

Three human rights groups from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. Here is a selection of highly symbolic winners from her three nations at the heart of the war in Ukraine.

The honor went to detained Belarusian activist Ares Bialyatsky, the Russian rights group Memorial, and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties.

“Together they demonstrate the importance of civil society for peace and democracy,” she added.

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However, the five-member committee did not go so far as to directly criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Nobel committee also called on Belarus to release Biaryatski, 60, the founder of the human rights group Vyasna, who has revealed increasingly authoritarian tendencies in President Aleksandr Lukashenko and his security forces. .

Minsk has cracked down on mass protests, with at least 37,000 people detained over the course of several months, according to the United Nations, with many claiming to have been ill-treated and tortured in detention.

Bialjatsky’s wife said she was “thrilled” at the news of the peace prize.

Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, mentioned in speculation about the Nobel Prize ahead of Friday’s announcement, said the prize was “a reward for all Belarusians who fight for freedom and democracy.” .

The Nobel Prize Committee said: “He is still in detention without trial. Despite tremendous personal hardships, Mr. Bialiatsky has stood firm in the fight for human rights and democracy in Belarus.” He said.

It also established a documentation center on victims of the Stalinist era.

“Right now, as the whole world congratulates us on our Nobel Prize, a court hearing is taking place at the Tverskoy District Court (in Moscow) over the seizure of Memorial assets,” said the organization’s Human Rights Center. said in the media. .

Last year, the peace prize went to another Kremlin commentator, Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov. His newspaper Novaya Gazeta also had its license revoked.

– “War Crimes” –

It praised the CCL’s “pioneering role aimed at holding guilty parties accountable for their crimes”.

Oleksandra Matviychuk said on Facebook that the court “should be set up to give the hundreds of thousands of victims of war crimes a chance to see justice…”.

Moscow also committed the massacre after dozens of civilian bodies were found in Bucha, a Kyiv suburb, and hundreds of civilian bodies were found in Izium, an area liberated by Ukrainian forces last month. has been accused of

The Peace Prize includes a gold medal, a certificate and a prize pool of 10 million Swedish kronor (approximately $900,000).

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