New Delhi: Human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski from Belarus has been awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize along with two other organisations. The announcement was made by Norwegian Nobel Committee Chair Berit Reiss-Andersen on Friday, October 7, in Oslo, Norway.
The Peace Prize laureates represent civil society in their home countries. They have promoted the right to criticise power and protect the fundamental rights of citizens for many years. Bialiatski was one of the initiators of the democracy movement that emerged in Belarus in the mid-1980s. He dedicated his life to promote democracy and peaceful development in his home country.
He also founded the organisation Viasna (Spring) in 1996 as a response to the controversial constitutional amendments that gave the president dictatorial powers and that triggered widespread demonstrations. The organisation provided support for the jailed demonstrators and their families. In the years that followed, Viasna evolved into a broad-based human rights organisation that protested against the authorities’ use of torture against political prisoners.
Bialiatski was imprisoned from 2011 to 2014. He was again arrested after a large-scale demonstrations against the regime in 2020. He is still detained without trial. Mr Bialiatski has not benefitted an inch in his fight for human rights and democracy in Belarus despite personal hardship.
The Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2022 to Ales Bialiatski, Memorial and the Center for Civil Liberties wishes to honour three outstanding champions of human rights, democracy and peaceful co-existence in the neighbour countries Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.
Through their consistent efforts in favour of humanist values, anti-militarism and principles of law, this year’s laureates have revitalised and honoured Alfred Nobel’s vision of peace and fraternity between nations.