This time, the Nobel Peace Prize honors a personality and two organizations fighting for freedom, democracy and human rights in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.
On the 70th birthday of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, this year’s Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to human rights activists from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. This time, the world’s most important peace prize goes to the imprisoned Belarusian human rights lawyer Ales Byaljazki, the Russian organization Memorial and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties. This was announced by the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday in Oslo. With a view to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and the situation in Belarus, experts also saw this as a signal to Putin and other autocrats in the world.
The committee’s decision was endorsed by politicians around the world. The winners received the award “quite rightly,” said Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz after an EU summit in Prague. He paid tribute to her courage, passion and clarity. French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that the laureates were staunch defenders of human rights in Europe.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee recognized Byaljazki, Memorial and the Center for Civil Liberties (CCL) for the roles they play in civil society in their countries. The award winners have worked for many years to protect the fundamental rights of citizens and the right to criticize those in power, said committee chair Berit Reiss-Andersen. They made special efforts to document war crimes, human rights abuses and abuses of power.
This time, the committee wants to underline the enormous importance of civil society and the opposition in every society – democratic as well as autocratic – said Reiss-Andersen of the dpa in Scandinavia. Individuals and organizations could play an extraordinary role in political affairs and in opposing war.
For the first time, Ukrainian and Belarusian actors are among the Nobel Peace Prize winners. An opponent of Putin received an award from Russia only last year: At that time, the award went to Dmitri Muratov and Maria Ressa from the Philippines. The two journalists received it for their fight for freedom of expression.
Byalyatski, who has been in a Belarusian prison for more than a year, has been fighting for democracy and freedom in his home country for many years. He and the human rights center Wesna, which he founded, achieved international fame during the mass protests in summer 2020.
Price as a sign against Russia?
Memorial in Russia, which campaigns for the politically persecuted, was dissolved in 2021 on the instructions of the authorities because it is said to have violated the law. The organization has now also lost its headquarters in Moscow. A court in the Russian capital on Friday handed the building over to the Russian state in a proceeding criticized as politically motivated. Since the beginning of the war, the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties has drawn attention to the situation of Ukrainian prisoners, among other things. All three prize winners have already been awarded the Right Livelihood Award, commonly referred to as the Alternative Nobel Prize – CCL only last week, the other two a few years ago.
With regard to Putin, Reiss-Andersen emphasized: “We always give an award for something and to someone – not against someone.” However, the selection of the award winners can certainly be seen as a sign against the actions of Putin and also of his ally Lukashenko, who was one of the guests at Putin’s birthday party on Friday. However, it is about more than Putin and the Ukraine war, said the director of the Stockholm peace research institute Sipri, Dan Smith. “I think the committee is sending the message that human rights, civil liberties and an active civil society are parts of peace,” Smith said. “I don’t think you can argue with that.”
Criticism came promptly from the Ukraine. “The Nobel Committee has an interesting interpretation of the word ‘peace’ when the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to representatives of two countries who have invaded a third country,” Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podoliak wrote on Twitter.
The Russian political scientist Abbas Galliamov, on the other hand, praised the award to actors from three countries that were once brothers. “The Nobel Committee has played the issue of the Slav Brotherhood a lot better than Putin with all his “integration processes” that have been going on for many years,” he wrote on Telegram.
343 candidates – 251 personalities and 92 organizations – were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this year. The names are traditionally kept secret for 50 years. With a view to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, it was speculated in advance that the award could go to Ukrainian actors, such as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya and the imprisoned Russian opponent of the Kremlin, Alexei Navalny, were also traded as favourites.
Source: Stern
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