Osloa, Norway, December 7, 2022

 

Left to right: Pinchuk, Rachinsky, Matviichuk

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2022 was awarded in Oslo, Norway to human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski of the Viasna Human Rights Centre from Belarus (Imprisoned by the Belarusuian government, his wife Natallia Pinchuk accepted his award); the Russian human rights organisation Memorial, and Ukrainian human rights organisation Centre for Civil Liberties.

Under the provisions of Alfred Nobel’s will, the Norwegian Nobel Committee is charged with awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the person or organisation that has conferred the greatest benefit to humankind in the field of peace during the preceding year.”

Closing remarks from the Nobel Peace Prize winners

Natallia Pinchuk, wife of the jailed activist Ales Bialiatski: “I hope that the Belarusian voice will be heard by the international community. I hope for this, people in Belarus hope for this, and those compatriots who live abroad also hope for this.”

Jan Rachinsky from the Russian organisation, Memorial: “It’s very difficult to imagine the world without Putin; he’s been in power for so long. Let’s hope we’ll see the day that the world will be based on respect for international law and not on the efforts of separate countries to destroy that.”

Oleksandra Matviichuk from the Ukrainian Centre for Civil Liberties: “This is a very important human story because civil society and human rights defenders [have] always built invisible ties and protect[ed] people in circumstances when the law doesn’t work. Now we continue jointly to resist the common evil which tries to dominate in our part of the world. I couldn’t predict what will be in the future, but I know for sure that we will do our best in order to create the future we want.”