Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, Russia’s Memorial and Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2022
What happens when a Belarusian Activist, a Russian human rights organization, and a Ukranian anti-establishment group are awarded the highest honour of a global peace award? A very strong message is sent, and it marks a victory that transcends just the winners and their countries. This year, amid a civil crisis that plagues Russia and Ukraine, three voices for human rights were amplified, in the quietest way possible.
Each of these winners chose to fight a battle that was potentially dangerous – a fight for people, democracies, their rights, to protect people from war crimes, aid their healing, and take on a mammoth task of bringing peace to all. In all three cases, the fight is still on. Their unrelenting efforts keep them going, whether it’s from a legal detention with no explanation, or in the shadows of operations shut forcefully.
Their combined mission, but also their separate wars, bring them together under this award in an almost poetic way. The world has recognized their sacrifices, vilified their cause, stood in solidarity with their tumultuous journey towards peaceful co-existence – in a time when we need it more than ever.
Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, Russia’s Memorial and Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2022. And somehow, the entire world was given the reassurance that humans right is, and always will be, of paramount importance.
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