Nobel Peace Prize 2022 awarded. Ales Bialiatski is among the laureates

The winners of the Nobel Peace Prize were Belarusian opposition figure Ales Bialiatski, the Russian organisation Memorial and the Ukrainian Centre for Civil Liberties.

“The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize to human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, the Russian human rights organisation Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties,” reported The Nobel Prize on Twitter.

“The laureates represent civil society in their countries of origin. For many years, they have promoted the right to criticise authority and protect the fundamental rights of citizens,” it was stressed.

“They have made extraordinary efforts to document war crimes, human rights violations and abuses of power. Together they demonstrate the importance of civil society for peace and democracy, it noted.

“We have not been able to contact Ales Bialiatski, who is in a Belarusian prison for his opposition activities, to inform him of his receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize,” admitted on Friday the chairwoman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen.

“I hope that this news will reach him and give him new courage. Now the news is spreading fast around the world,” announced Reiss-Andersen.

Earlier, she expressed hope that the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Bialiatski would contribute to the activist’s release from prison. Bialiatski is expected in Oslo on 10 December, where the award ceremony will take place.

“The Nobel Peace Prize for the political prisoner, head of the Centre for the Defence of Human Rights Viasna, Ales Bialiatski, signifies the appreciation of all Belarusians fighting for their right to freedom and democracy,” Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Heorhiyeuna Tsikhanouskaya, who is currently in France, wrote on Twitter.

“Ales Bialiatski has fought all his life for human rights and freedom in Belarus; awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize gives us confidence that we will win,” said, in turn, the Belarusian oppositionist and former Belarusian ambassador to Poland, Pavel Latushko.