Last year’s Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to human rights activists from Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, who bravely defended the right to criticize those in power and opposed President Vladimir V. Putin’s aggression.
The recipients of the prize were Memorial, a Russian organization; the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine; and Ales Bialiatski, a Belarusian activist who is currently imprisoned. However, the decision to share the award sparked controversy. While many Ukrainians celebrated the Center for Civil Liberties’ recognition, some viewed it as reinforcing Putin’s narrative that Russia and Ukraine are “brotherly nations.”
Others saw the prize as a testament to defiance across borders in the face of Russia’s war in Ukraine. The winners have long been advocates for the right to criticize those in power and the protection of citizens’ fundamental rights,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, at last year’s ceremony.
Let’s take a closer look at the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize recipients:
Center for Civil Liberties
Established in 2007, Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties had been documenting human rights abuses and war crimes in Ukraine long before Russia’s full-scale invasion last year.
During Russia’s forced occupation of Crimea in 2014, the group documented the disappearances of activists, journalists, and dissidents. Their work expanded after the invasion, as they partnered with national and international organizations to continue documenting Russian war crimes against Ukrainians.
Last year, the group relaunched its Euromaidan SOS project, which involved hundreds of local volunteers collecting testimonies of human rights violations. The project was originally established during the 2013 and 2014 protests in Kyiv’s Maidan Square to monitor abuses committed by the security forces of the then-president Viktor Yanukovych.
Additionally, the organization has been advocating for Ukraine to become affiliated with the International Criminal Court, although it is still not a full member. Since 2013, Ukraine has accepted the court’s jurisdiction over crimes committed on its territory.
Memorial
Memorial, a Russian rights group founded in 1988, has spent decades enlightening the Russian public about political repression during the Soviet era by publishing history books, hosting exhibits, and educating schoolchildren.
However, as President Putin has cracked down on dissenting voices, Memorial’s pursuit of truth regarding Russia’s history has been met with punishment. The group was banned by the Russian government a year before receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. On the day the prizes were announced, Memorial members were fighting in court to preserve their last remaining office space in Moscow after their liquidation the previous year. As expected, the judge ruled against them.
This was the second consecutive year that a Russian individual or organization received the Nobel Prize. In 2021, one of the laureates was Dmitri A. Muratov, the editor of the Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which has sadly lost six journalists to violence.
Ales Bialiatski
Ales Bialiatski, the 61-year-old Belarusian laureate, has been involved in human rights movements since before Belarus gained independence from Soviet control. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the rise of Belarusian authoritarian leader Aleksandr G. Lukashenko in 1994, Bialiatski founded another rights group called Viasna, meaning “Spring.”
He was arrested after testifying on behalf of another activist and subsequently put on trial himself on fabricated charges of tax evasion. After serving a four-and-a-half-year sentence, he was released on amnesty in 2014.
Currently, Bialiatski is imprisoned without formal charges and is under investigation, along with other members of Viasna. They have become targets of repression following the 2020 protests that occurred after Lukashenko’s controversial election victory, widely seen as rigged.
The Belarusian foreign ministry mocked the award in a post on X, formerly Twitter, stating that the awards had become overly politicized, suggesting that Alfred Nobel was displeased with the outcome.